AI surpasses the artist, won the painting prize

Work Théâtre d’opera Spatial brought to the Colorado State Exhibition by user Jason Allen (USA) and was awarded first prize in the digital art category on August 29. However, while artists use computer brushes, Allen creates the picture by commanding Midjourney, the recently popular AI painting tool.

Allen then printed the work on canvas, with a description of “painting done by Jason M. Allen through Midjourney” and brought it to the competition exhibit. Théâtre d’opera Spatial considered a magnificent work, depicting an opera performance in space. The brushstrokes are said to be skillful, the image is classical with the appearance of a baroque hall, with a sunny round umbrella as the highlight.

“I won first prize,” Jason Allen, nicknamed Sincarnate, boasted on the Midjourney community’s Discord group. The brief announcement sparked a huge controversy between him with artists and those who are not sympathetic to AI.

Genel Jumalon, an ENNIE Award-winning animator, spoke first: “Someone entered an art competition with an AI-generated work and won first prize. How terrible.”

A Twitter account then shared the above message and expressed concern at what AI can do. “We are witnessing the death of art before our eyes. If creative jobs are not safe from machines, even highly skilled jobs are in danger of becoming obsolete. We What’s after that?”. This comment attracted more than three thousand likes after one day.

In response, Jason Allen called his criticisms “hypocritical”. He thinks that those people want to promote people and oppose art created by AI, but they themselves are denying the human element in the work.

Tools like Midjourney inherently draw pictures based on descriptive sentences entered by the user. Allen said he had to come up with a special idea for his painting, then sifted through hundreds of AI-recommended images to find the best ones. These paintings were made by Allen using the Gigapixel tool to enlarge, combining with Photoshop to refine. The painting that won the first prize was one of three that Allen brought to the exhibition.

According to him, his critics are judging his works according to the way they are made rather than the artistic element. “So suppose if an artist paints when they are hanging upside down and under control, will their work be judged differently from artists who draw normally?”, he asked. ask. This person also thinks that the world will eventually have to recognize AI-generated art and need to assign a separate category for them.

This is not the first time that artists have complained about works created by artificial intelligence. At the beginning of August, the magazine The Atlantic was criticized because an editor used Midjourney to illustrate the characters for the article, instead of buying photos or hiring people to draw. Artists say that decision could lead to a future where publishers don’t need illustrators, or could cut budgets for art.

“Technology is increasingly being used for performing work. However, many of them are not benefiting the public well enough and this is only making billionaires richer. ” said animator Matt Borrs.

In addition, many artists also believe that AI painting on demand is a way to take advantage of their lifetime achievements to enrich the technology world.

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