As an illustrator, I spend a lot of time looking at artwork online. I've been able to improve my art by learning from others – through Social Media, I can easily reach a variety of talented Artists and discover new approaches to art that I didn't even realize existed. I could see how the same character could be portrayed by numerous artists, each piece filled with love and personality. In that regard, being an artist online often feels very fulfilling, allowing me to learn about the art while enjoying the content. For example, this drawing of the cast of “Bob's Burgers” captures the essence of each character while also completely changing the show's original style. I am constantly inspired by my peers and excitedly surf the web every day to find new artwork to please.

Lately I've been scouring social media as usual and scrolling past this Art work. I liked it without hesitation; it seemed like a beautifully hand-painted rendition of a character I liked. However, it later reappeared on my timeline in a new way. Some users claimed the post was AI-generated, warning other artists. I was shocked. The piece looks handmade – I can see almost every brushstroke.

I dug into the account and found that each AI work has a coherent style: they all seem to be the work of the same artist. Each piece looks like it took hours of work, as if the artist went to great lengths to render each strand of hair. However, all this is an illusion. I can't get around it. It took me a few minutes to scroll through the artwork to find any kind of rendering error — fourth photo In this case there is a fault in the system.

By discovering this account, I've noticed discussions popping up on the topic of AI art.I've seen milder shots – a user state They agree with the AI ​​work, but don't want them to appear in fan art tags online because they aren't handmade. I think I have a similar feeling. I'm certainly intimidated by accounts like this and their popularity, but I might be more comfortable accepting this reality if they explicitly mention that they're AI-generated. I don't want a world where the lines between handcrafted and AI art are blurred. When I realized that one day I could be replaced by a machine, I felt an discomfort—an eerie feeling that filled my body.I find myself combining my work with artificial intelligencecriticizing my art as if I could perform like a robot.

This is the voice of many artists share, especially around the rise of NFT and artificial intelligence art in the past year. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are essentially works of digital art sold as cryptocurrencies, and they've caught on. To the uninformed viewer, these appear to benefit the artist. However, due to the lack of strict copyright laws, a large community of Independent Artists has loathed NFTs. Anyone can have their work tokenized – essentially having it stolen without their knowledge. On top of that, there is a general feeling of elitism that many artists, myself included, don't like NFTs. The atmosphere around NFTs feels focused on making millions instead of supporting the artists they love. NFT fans usually have an Elon Musk-esque attitude, bragging about making them thousands of soulless apes. They also damage the environment, using large amounts of unnecessary energy to run their ecosystems.

Lately, it feels like artists have been pushed into this trap — a trap where their content will be suppressed unless they enter a market that ultimately doesn’t respect them personally. For example, Twitter is actively promoting NFT integration on its platform, as are Facebook and Instagram. The same kind of promotion for independent artists has never been done before NFTs existed.Support for and fascination with AI art online has clearly increased; even DeviantArt, a social media platform notorious for listening to artists, has recently Added AI art integration on their website.

DeviantArt's new AI art rules special Fear For artists, they have the option to include all current work on the site in AI datasets and hints. This means that your existing work can be fairly used for AI generator learning, and the AI ​​can learn directly from your work. In order to opt out of this feature, you have to wade through the forms and wait for the lengthy 10-day review period.The announcement sparked outrage; a quote Particularly striking, stating that DeviantArt “choose to support the artist's death”. Many artists even deactivated their accounts due to this announcement. Many uninformed artists may be completely oblivious to these announcements, unknowingly agreeing that their work becomes a learning tool for artificial intelligence that could theoretically replace them. It's disheartening to hear, especially from a platform geared towards independent artists. I was thinking, is this the inevitable future?

Fortunately, DeviantArt noticed the outrage before all hope was dashed: within eight hours, their original statement had been revised.a new one tweet Published stating that all posts will now be automatically opted out of the AI ​​dataset. This is a huge win for small artists online; it feels good to have a platform that actually listens to our complaints. The future looks bright, and we relax our tense shoulders. We can still separate ourselves from AI – we still have each other, artists supporting artists.

Although I praised social media at the beginning of this article, I feel compelled to acknowledge its role in progressive movements like NFTs and AI art. With the increase in ways to make money online, there is definitely a push to use art or anything similar as a “side hustle”. For example, Time magazine's “Top 20 Side Hustles” for 2022 are largely based on social media. It's definitely been a struggle in my career, that “if I can make money, why not?” feeling. I'm not the only one who responds to these feelings. Marian Bull's “The Complicated Reality of Doing What You Love” eloquently states that “once demand arises, sales are inevitable.” The world of social media is certainly pushing artists toward these standards, and if they don't Conform to the trend of modern art and face the threat of irrelevance. This turned into an uncomfortable debate about ethics and integrity; I remember unfollowing several artists who decided to enter the NFT market, outraged at their spinelessness. How can we artists turn to an art form that compromises our integrity and harms the environment unnecessarily?

Unsurprisingly, the answer seems to point to money. Freelancing looks different now, it's not so simple and commission based. Many could argue that these NFT and AI artists are just ambitious entrepreneurs chasing a hungry market; while that may be true, the fact that the market ends up in this state is depressing. The direction of the art seems to be to drive humans out as fast as possible, prioritizing quick jobs that can make a quick profit. In these popular “art” spaces, there is no sense of love, personalization or style anymore. Hopefully independent artists will continue to speak out and prove the priceless value of man-made art. We've certainly always been able to make meaningful art – we always have. However, we should allow our work to be seen as valuable by the public. We are not ready to be replaced by machines, we artists need to let people know that.

Daily Arts writer Katelyn Sliwinski can be reached at [email protected].