The use of AI initially gained popularity after the release of ChatGPT (Chat Generated Pre-trained Transformer), which is a generative chatbot powered by artificial intelligence. Whether a user is typing in a question or a prompt, the way that the AI is trained allows it to give a detailed explanation or response.
Although it seems like a good idea at first, concerns in schools about students using ChatGPT to cheat on their assignments quickly popped up. The chatbot makes it harder to trace plagiarism and retain academic honesty. The quality of writing that comes from students has declined because of this.
One of the most popular programs for generating art with AI is called Midjourney. It used to offer a free trial for users, but it currently requires users to have an active subscription in order to use it. Currently, it has over 15 million users. That amount has consistently grown by around 23,000 new users every day, but it has managed to reach upward of 90,000 new users at one point.
All programs for AI-generated art are trained from existing art made by real people. Many times, the artist is never asked for permission for their art to be used. Because of this, the programs don’t actually create a unique piece of art. Instead, they imitate the artworks that they were trained with.
In June of this year, Marvel released a show on Disney+ called “Secret Invasion.” It quickly gained backlash when viewers found out that the use of artificial intelligence was utilized in the opening credits of the show. With how big Marvel is as a company, it’s extremely disappointing to see that they’d rather use AI-generated art instead of actually supporting a real artist.
At the time, it even helped spark the writer’s strike. The Writer’s Guild of America voiced their concerns on how artificial intelligence would affect the film industry in the future. Not only could artificial intelligence produce images, but it would also be able to create drafts of screenplays. Large companies taking the lazy way out and purposefully choosing not to support an artist or writer is, with complete certainty, unethical.
