While the AI ”art” debate continues to rage on sites like ArtStation, Twitter, and Reddit (and likely in the comments below this article), it’s already being used in commercial projects. Most recently Justin Roiland from Squanch Games and Rick and Morty Fame confirmed that his latest project, the comedic first person shooter high in lifeused a machine learning algorithm to create poster art and even a vocal performance.
so called AI art has quickly become a hot topic under Artists and creators online as it has become easier than ever to type just a few words and get detailed (and sometimes even good-looking) digital images. AI art isn’t really art as we commonly define it, as it wasn’t created by humans and is just a jumble of digital bits and pieces ripped out of existing images – often without permission from the original artists – and arranged in a specific way the somehow looks like something a human artist could create. And in a world where it is harder than ever for artists to make a living, AI art has the potential to destroy many lives, careers and futures. In response, AI tech bros and their fellow weirdos say, “Lol, okay Boomer, go ahead!” Now the technology has been used in a video game and… I’m so tired of being fed up with it all.
in the an interview with Sky newsJustin Roiland confirmed that his studio Squanch Games used the AI art tool Midjourney AI during high in life‘s production to put the “finishing touches” on the world. Although not directly confirmed in the interview, People on Reddit spotted it many posters in the game which appear to have been created with AI art tools. (You can tell this by the way they look like the “person” who made them had no idea what a human or printed words look like.)
“It makes the world feel like a weird alternate universe of our world,” explained Roiland Sky news. “And we used it to come up with weird, funny ideas.”
Roiland has said that most artworks in high in life is handmade by people. But it also sucks that we live in a timeline where you even have to acknowledge that; that the art in your game was made by humans and not by text input. Head designer Erich Meyr continued Sky news that they used AI to prototype character voices, and that a “minor” role in the game was actually voiced by AI.
“I don’t know what the future holds, but AI will be a tool that has the potential to make content creation incredibly accessible,” Roiland continued. “I don’t know how many years away we are from that, but all you have to be is someone with big ideas.”
I ignore Roiland’s claim that AI is used to generate ideas and that it’s also for people with ideas, and I’m disappointed that AI art is infecting video games so quickly. But I’m not surprised. The video game industry has long treated its artists like machines that can run 14 hours a day, for weeks. And rarely are developers or artists paid fairly. So it stands to reason that game studios and publishers will be among the first to replace workers with algorithms and various “AI”-enabled tools as soon as possible.
Continue reading: AI creating “art” is an ethical and proprietary nightmare
Of course, some will jump into the comments to explain that AI art is actually awesome, the people who create it using command prompts are artists, and automation is just a natural part of civilization and technology. And to those people I say, ‘Come on, really? Come on.”
You see, if we lived in a world where universal basic income was common, medicine and food were free, and we had safety nets to make sure everyone could live a happy and healthy life, I’d be more ok with AI art and similar tools that may replace traditional careers and jobs. But that is not the case. Until then, more automation will result in more people struggling to survive. The advance of technology may be hard to stop, but that doesn’t mean it’s universally correct, ethical, or something we should just let happen. Even if you truly believe that “art created by AI” is good, that doesn’t mean we have to accept the immense toll it will take on actual living people as our future.
