Pleasant Valley High School has many students who are not only artistically talented in school, but are also looking to pursue the arts after graduation. However, with these prospects in mind, some concerns have been raised about the future of this field, as AI designed to replicate human art continues to develop.
Both visual art and music AI models are programmed using large amounts of preexisting data. Because of this, for years, people have begun to feel that large AI developments are piggybacking off of their hard-earned creative work without compensation. “It is blatant plagiarism specifically for art,” stated senior Chiara Paul, “AI images aren’t created by the AI. It actively steals creative people’s pre-existing works, copies it and plays it off as its own.”
Because of what AI-generated media is in itself, artists have very strong feelings about the idea of AI being considered intelligent. Paul stated, “Artificial intelligence is a terrible name for it. It’s not intelligent, and it does not think for itself.” Paul believes it is an algorithm that merely takes people’s existing work and puts it into a blender as an attempt to replicate the quality of human work.
AI’s replication of music is seemingly not as smooth sailing as its visual art has shown to be. Because of algorithmic limitations and the mysterious nature of music itself, the output from developmental AI music engines leaves a lot to be desired in the ear of the listener.
Junior Alasia Green is a talented music producer who records her own music and has a strong stance on AI in the music industry. “AI can be helpful, but it shouldn’t compete with people who put real emotion, time and effort into writing and producing their music,” Green said. “Human music comes from lived experiences, passion and hard work- things AI doesn’t truly have.”
Green is very passionate about her music, and for this reason, she understands what separates her from a computer algorithm. “I’m concerned that treating AI-generated music the same as human-made music could take away opportunities and recognition from real artists.” If AI music is ever valued by the public at the same level as human music is, it will certainly impact her future, diminishing her chances of getting her music heard by the masses.
The future effects that AI may hold for many artists are yet to be seen, however, as a result of current AI training practices, many artists are fearful of their work getting stolen. “As an artist and a singer, AI has really discouraged me from posting and sharing anything anywhere because of the looming possibility of it being stolen,” shared Paul. “I know many other artists who think the same way. Animators, freelance artists, and even the music industry are in jeopardy.”
74% percent of artists express concern over their art being used to train AI models, and over 90% of artists view AI-generated art in a negative light. It is safe to say both famous artists’ and PV’s aspiring artists’ fears are here to stay unless there is a change.
While there has been a push by many for greater protections over the use of their work in the training of AI models, a plausible solution to the issue seems non-existent so far. Because of the nature of this problem, many solutions are simply too vague. Therefore, without any solution in sight, all artists, including PV’s own students, will have to navigate this never-before-seen issue while moving into the future.
