Will Artists Be Replaced by AI?

A couple of years ago, my mom started sending me a bunch of amazing images that she created with AI. She was excited about the possibilities, as many people were (and many still are). I was incredibly overwhelmed at the time with client work and couldn’t fathom learning a new skill. 

Fast forward two years, and I see an ad on Facebook of a gal who has a lot of similarities to me, offering courses on using AI for Branding and Marketing. I don’t normally “go” for every ad that pops up in front of me; very rarely do. But she had so many similarities to me – she mentioned being a burlesque performer/I am a bellydancer, she mentioned she used to live in Oregon and now lives in the desert/I live in Oregon and used to live in the desert, and it went on and on like this. I kept thinking, “Is she inside my brain?” At the same time, what she was offering sounded absolutely magical – using AI for marketing and branding. That is what I love to do and have done for 20+ years. Take my money!

First, allow me to rewind a bit. It took me about two weeks to decide whether to join the courses or not for a couple of reasons. The first and biggest reason was that it was AI. 😳 I didn’t know where I stood on AI. I wasn’t sure how I felt about learning AI when it uses other people’s artwork to build from. I had tried ChatGPT a few times to see how it worked, but then quickly saw people relying on ChatGPT for their Instagram captions, and it was really obvious. Yikes. The second holdup was that the courses were pretty expensive, but if they were really fleshed out, they could be pretty useful to my work. 

On the other side of those fears, I felt hope and excitement. Could AI really change the way I do my work? Could it help in ways that I don’t even know yet? It turned out that my hope and excitement won out, and I joined the courses. I love it when hope wins!

You’re probably asking by now, “When is she going to get to the part about AI replacing artists?” That time is now, my sweet friend. 

I started the courses, and I was still feeling leery. I wasn’t all-in on the AI part of the courses, but I also knew I wanted to keep an open mind. Well, it turns out, my mind was blown wide open. Three or four courses in, I began to realize how AI is a tool that can help artists. A tool that creative people can use to make images that they might not have had the skills to make previously (either digitally or manually). I saw painters learning to create graphics with excitement – something many of them never thought they would learn. I began telling my friends and family about the courses and how excited it made me to learn these new tools. Some were apprehensive (and some still are), some were as excited as I was. 

My close friend Susan is a glass-fusion artist. She takes tiny bits of glass and cuts them into shapes and designs and kiln-fires them to fuse the pieces together. It’s an incredible process. The glass goes in looking like awkward chunks and hard-edged shapes, and comes out in these gorgeous designs that she is able to envision before firing. Susan is one of my “excited-about-AI” friends. We were chatting about the possibilities of AI, and she asked me to send her something. I created a rudimentary prompt in an image generator for fused glass art of a hummingbird. The image generator gave me four beautiful design ideas. I sent them to Susan, and she loved them as idea-spawners! Seeing the images gave her all sorts of other ideas in her head for creating new pieces. 

I saw how using AI spurred my friend Susan’s creativity, and I saw it spurring mine as well. I see all of the people in my courses energized by this new tool and the endless number of things it can do. We don’t even have a grasp of how amazing it will ultimately be in aiding us in our everyday lives. The sky really is the limit at this point. 

Heck, even just today, I was setting up my new site for the courses I’m creating, and I wanted to link my domain. In the past, I would have to go to my domain host, then put in some complicated information that I had to look up every time, because I only do this once every few years. I would then have to hop over to the web host side of things and make sure the pertinent information is entered there as well. And then I would spend hours trying to make the two connect and checking back to see if they had been connected. It was always at least half a day lost on such a task. And sometimes a few days if everything wouldn’t connect. This time, I clicked a button on the web host side of things, and a message popped up, “Hang on, we’ll connect to your domain host and set this all up for you”. What?! WOW!! I was so excited. It took about 3 minutes – in which I had to do nothing but log into the domain host – and AI did the rest. AI tools can help free up time for creativity. I was over the moon! Imagine what life will be like when we no longer have to do the mundane tasks of the day in and day out of our jobs, and we can focus on creating, growing, ideating, and experimenting. Life will indeed be more fulfilling for all of us. 

On top of all of this amazingness, my creativity and passion for all of the work in my life have been reenergized in a way I can’t even explain. It’s one of those “you’d have to be there” moments. I revamped my illustration art website. I’m working on a set of online courses to launch. I’m filled with ideas and joie de vivre! I’m listening to music and creating ar,t and working in the garden. Every aspect of my life feels richer and rewarding. 

So, do I think AI will replace artists? Absolutely not. If this is the effect it has had on me – a studied fine artist – then I believe it will ignite passion and excitement in others as well. And I know that there will always be a desire for hand-created artistry. Think about all of the ways that machines can create things instead of humans. A machine can sew a dress, but without the creativity of a human, all dresses would be the same. AI can “paint a picture,” but it won’t be that exact moment when you visited Paris and looked out over the Seine and painted a plein-air painting. It won’t be the way that you can get the details of the eyes just right when painting a portrait of someone you love. And none of it is tactile – something humans LOVE. I mean, who doesn’t touch everything in a store as they peruse and see things they enjoy? 

What AI may do is make hand-artistry even more valuable. As people are able to create the images they see in their heads, there will be more desire and a need for things that still exist in our physical space. We can already purchase a print of almost any art we can imagine for as little as a few dollars. Did that put artists out of business? No. Instead, it made the handmade art more valuable. More is desired by those who love to collect art. More is searched out by those who want something tactile. The nuance of human creativity cannot be replicated because each of us is incredibly different. 

So, to all of my artist friends, I say, keep making your art. Keep honing your hand-art skills. And if you’re interested, even a little, play with AI imagery apps too. Let the text AI apps assist you with those mundane tasks, leaving you more time for creativity and the magic only you can create. You never know what inspiration or spark of creativity it might give you! Get so good at what you do that people are clamoring for your handmade art. The day is coming, my sweet friends, if it is not here already.