We Need To Stop AI

Nicki and Megan are beefing and if I wasn’t on Megan’s side already, I would be anyway, for just one reason: Nicki Minaj has been working overtime creating AI images for her new foot-themed diss track.

While it’s difficult to talk about betraying artistry when the accompanying song sounds like.. that, this is exactly what’s happening. How can we expect the average artist to get employed if one of the richest and most famous musicians in the world is forgoing real art and instead going for a robotic semblance of it. With terrible results too; in one piece, police tape litters the streets of Gag City with indecipherable glyphs on it. Is it police tape? Because it doesn’t say that. But these things matter less and less lately, speed and all expenses spared is the way things are going, unless we start saying to our faves (and Nicki) “Your album art sucks!”. These artists should become marked for not caring about their artistry. Musicians rely on the artistry of so many, whether it’s graphic designers, merchandisers, photographers, or fashion houses, and to shun the talented artists they have access to and decide to use AI instead should offend their own teams. 

Becoming an artist is often a labour of love. Most of us don’t attend art school and even more are never successful on a level of name recognition. AI threatens the livelihoods of those who already have endangered careers, and to know you’re supporting an artist who themselves doesn’t care about other art is demoralising. 

I follow an artist on instagram, I won’t name her because I am a fan of her work, but she often uses and posts pieces of AI garbage to either advertise merch drops or conceptualise future exhibits. I wonder every time I see them if she has thought this through, thought through that even the most casual use of this soulless technology adds to its power. Her paintings sell for thousands, she has a shop in the heart of London; she is far enough removed from the average artist experience to not have to think about these things. She needs concepts fast, and she isn’t immune to the demand for content that all artists publishing on Instagram face. But she also has money, if she herself doesn’t have the time to produce conceptual art, she could hire an artist that does. I can guarantee there’s thousands of them waiting for that opportunity.

And sadly this has become something of a trend: established creatives, people who already have their work in print and in exhibits, are turning to AI. In the pages of Cosmopolitan last month, a fashion photoshoot had all AI backgrounds. Set dressing is a career in itself, yet film studios have already begun using green screen whenever possible. If photographers too decide to stop investing in their art, it won’t be a career option in ten years time. What’s worse though is the photoshoot didn’t look good, it just looked AI; it didn’t make sense and only worked if you gave it less than a fleeting glance. Is that the hope of these artists, that we don’t look too close? That’s not much to be proud of.

Ultimately, it’s artists that have the power here. I would never work with someone who uses AI, either in advertising their work or creating it. It’s insidious and only works to harm our careers. The more artists who themselves choose to make this statement, the stronger we are. Only through community can we protect our community from AI.

---