Source (Facebook)
The author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesper_Myrfors
Transcription
A message to people flirting with the idea of cosplaying as an artist through AI: I am an artist, I have also been art directing off and on for over 30 years. I guess I am best known for art directing Magic: The Gathering for its first release and many expansion sets afterwards. I work primarily in gaming.
A am friends with many art directors who still work regularly.
We talk.
I can assure you that the general thinking on the matter is that if you present a portfolio with AI images in it you will not be hired. You will in essence be black-listed and lose any opportunity to work in the industry. As I said…we talk.
We do not want to waste our time with someone who thinks that they can skip cultivating a personal artistic style. We do not want to deal with the headache of accepting work that cannot be copyrighted. We do not want to offer jobs to people who think stealing from our peers is an OK way to do business. And it only takes one image to sink your future. Only one.
If you are hired and turn in AI work you can kiss any thought of a future in illustration goodbye. I know a lot of AI bros are out there telling people it’s the future, what they are not saying is that using AI to replace a skill you should already have insures you will have no future.
People who respect art and artists look on AI as a joke and an insult. When you include it in your portfolio you are mocking people who spent years learning a skill and collecting influences and a unique way of translating the way they see the world into 2d images. Nobody wants your crappy machine made theft collage.
If that is all you have to offer then you are offering less than nothing. You are litter on other people’s career paths. You are a distraction and a great waste of time. You are clutter.
Think really hard before you decide to pass AI off as your “artwork”. Many, many eyes are watching. You will be judged and in a market where there are already so many great real artists why would anyone want to waste their time on your cheap shoddy goods? The answer is that they won’t and they will let their friends in the industry know to avoid you. Those are the facts.
machine made theft collage
Haha, perfect description
That’s all well and good until the C-suite commands you to hire AI prompt “artists” because it’s what the money line demands.
I think the “non-copyrightable” issue they mentioned could be a useful tool to push back against that, though.
It isn’t. If that becomes the only problem, they’ll just fix that with legislation without addressing any of the deeper or more systemic issues, as is tradition.
I agree 100% but basically all of my artist and designer friends (accept for one) are already using genai in their production workflows. It’s disgusting, they just don’t care about the ethical implications…
While I appreciate the sentiment, in the industries I’m working in, people are being hired because of their AI portfolios, not despite it.
Yup. Artists can have their integrity, but hiring mangers see nothing but $$$.
Some guy who worked as an artis for Hasbro then started his own game company a year ago and has made one game since isn’t a source of much credibility here.
Companies are actively using AI in their workflows now whether you like it or not, and you can sit and pretend theres some secret cabal of artists (scoff) who somehow are the ones with a say on other artists getting hired (scoff), but thats… not how it is.
The people making the calls are, tbh, incredibly ravenous for anything remotely related to AI. I don’t think its a smart idea, but it doesnt change the fact there is appetite for it in the market, jobs to be had, etc etc.
However, I don’t think a portfolio of AI art is useful… at all
Hiring practices are way more interested in peoples ability to train and refine models, not use them.
I mean using them is sorta useful too, but thats quickly becoming a literal baseline skill that they just expect you are able to do. Prompt engineering is quickly becoming just sort of an expected “you should know how to do this, its not a selling point, its the bar” thing, akin to “you know how to use a mouse and keyboard and write emails” kind of thing.
Not like its hard, prompt engineering is pretty easy to take a 30 min lesson on and be “good enough” so thats why its such a baseline whatever skill.
If you cant do it though (and yes, I have met people who cant figure out how the hell you prompt an AI, they just literally dont get it), you probably will lose your job security very fast. Get used to it lol…
NOTE Im not saying any of the above is a good thing, but it is reality, whether you like it or not.
From the other side, you can get into art university using ai portfolio now 🤡
… then what, get kicked out after first semester?
Better, after student’s (who actually work on their assigment) backslash, techer admitted that the ai student is a
special case
whatever this bullshit means, be it nepotism, corruption or straightforward stupidity.
We also got a straight push from teachers toward AI as “future”, or some bullshit so, anyway…
lmao. i heard about a case of a fella who got admitted for studies at faculty of chemistry (UJ) but he didn’t want to go there, but also didn’t cancel that or anything. dude was completely clueless, failed every single class and got kicked out at the first opportunity (after first semester exams) he was pressured by parents to study something, anything, but couldn’t get interested in any subject. i sense many such cases in future
I’m kinda incredulous that there are people presenting portfolio’s with AI work? Either as their own or as a demonstration of anything.
Anyone who’s played around with AI image generation knows it’s limitations.
I feel like this is a rant that didn’t need to be had because it’s so obvious.
Those limitations are quickly being eliminated, tho - just look where things are now compared to when all this AI shit broke out just a few years ago.
Nah. That’s just not how technology progression works.
When a new tech emerges you go from 0% to 80% implementation in a rapid emergence - the low hanging fruit is easily achieved, before you start to encounter unsolvable problems.
The next 10% takes time and resources, but ultimately achievable in a predictable methodical way.
The next 5% (to 95%) takes decades. Iterations. Upstarts. Dead ends. Break throughs.
As you approach 100% implementation the time and resources required increases exponentially and you just might not ever get there.
If a 100% implementation is a service that someone could rely on to be competitive with a skilled and experienced artist, then to me it seems entirely likely that will not happen in the foreseeable future.
Whoops. Just realised the comm. Deleting my comment myself, carry on.
You will not be hired
Why would Starbucks care what is in my art portfolio?
All joking aside… Fuck AI, but this is basically just saying the art community will inevitably implode via circular accusations of AI use. Also, this post in particular has some heavy Karen vibes. “Like I said, we talk.” Cringe.
I think using hybrid of AI and manual illustration is the future - you can’t decline AI being able to save a lot of time on mundane work. And because of that it gets adopted in industries like gaming…
