This Guy Won a Major Art Competition using only an AI generated Piece: Apparently, the AI uprising is already in existence!
©Jason Allen - screengrab from discord
I called it! I freaking called it! These AIs are gonna put us all outt've our jobs very soon! Nonetheless, the real question still remains — just how soon?
So this morning, I read an article about a guy from Colorado who apparently took first place in the Colorado's State fair annual art competition, not by hours and hours of painting and detailing, not by days and days spent moulding clay, not even by weeks and weeks of precise chiseliy but — BUT — by simply using a powerful AI known as MidJourney.
At first, when I read the headlines I was like "Nahhh... No way they actually picked a robot over good old human labor" but damn, was I wrong!
The guy, in question, goes by the name of Jason M. Allen and apparently, he's some kind of AI enthusiast. And so consequentially, when he submitted his AI generated art titled "Théâtre D’opéra Spatial" to the contest, it was received quite well by the judges; so much so infact, that they awarded him with the First place ribbon!
Of course, Human artists and well... Humans in general didn't take this well and immediately, there was this major burst of backlash that sparked numerous controversies surrounding the art, the artist, the competition at large, and even the state of mind of the judges lol.
As numerous angry users on Twitter wrote:
Personally, I am not at all against AI generated art, I think it can be quite beneficial to artists infact. However, just as another user mentioned:
"I don't have nothing against AI art but however, I feel it just needs to be in a whole new category of art form on in its own. I mean, robots and humans shouldn't exactly be put against each other in the same contest right? What'd you think was gonna happen?..."
I agree as well.
And apparently, myself and that user, weren't the only ones whom were not at all gravely affected by the outcome. Some other Twitter uses expressed:
I mean sure when taking both sides into consideration, you can't help but feel sympathetic towards these people. Because okay, in one hand you have Human artists whom are frustrated that some robot is trying to downsize their labor; and on the other, you have these dreamers/innovators who are interested in expanding the field of art. Well, either that or the latter is just really happy to not have to pay for their artworks anymore!
Anyway, in response to all these reactions wrote, Jason wrote:
How interesting is it to see how all these people on Twitter who are against AI generated art are the first ones to throw the human under the bus by discrediting the human element! Does this seem hypocritical to you guys?” he posted to the Midjourney Discord server following his win. “I’m not stopping now. This win has only emboldened my mission.”
Another one of his more unpopular remakes was when interviewed by New York Time's own Kevin Roose. During the interview, he implored that his entry which was submitted under the name "Jason M. Allen via Midjourney” was clearly stated as an AI generated art and that he didn't have the intention of deceiving anyone whatsoever.
“I’m not going to apologize for it,” he said. “I won, and I didn’t break any rules.”
He said.
Look, like I mentioned before, I really have nothing against AI generated art. Infact, I use it myself frim time to time. I think the most important thing though when using the artificial intelligence... Is to use it smartly, judiciously, and creatively!
At the end of the day, art is art no? I mean, just check out these three pieces I created THIS MORNING using Stable Diffusion:
I call it: The Victorian Maiden in a Painting
I call it: Ms Google eyes
I call her: Tara Violet Heart
I know right! For an art that was created by a machine in less than a minute, that's pretty freaking impressive!
Maybe AI isn't that bad afterall huh?... What if.... What if instead of trying to fight it, we instead try to co-exist with it. And maybe, just maybe... we'll be able to further our visionaries and innovations not just for Art alone, but the world entire.
Comment down below:
How do you feel about Jason winning the contest with an AI generated art?
Are you against AI artists or anything concerning AI for that matter?
How do you feel AI will perform over the next couple of years?
Do you think that eventually, AIs would be able take over/replace Human labor on a wide Global scale?