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Comment by superb-owl | Hacker News Reader

I totally agree [1]. Once all the panic dies down, I think you'll see these technologies enabling artists more than hurting them.

The displacement problem isn't quite there yet. While it's a good replacement for stock photo aggregators, it's not a great replacement for commissioning an actual artist. E.g. if you want a consistent look and feel for each of your images, you'll struggle. It's only the C-listers, who create heaps of bland stock photos in hopes of earning royalties, who have something to worry about.

As the technology improves, you'll see a whole new tranche of creators who are able to harness it to create amazing new things.

[1] https://superbowl.substack.com/p/the-future-of-art-is-artifi...

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Completely agree I've been experimenting with an Img2Img workflow for rendering drawings https://twitter.com/P_Galbraith/status/1564940095777431552?t...

> Once all the panic dies down, I think you'll see these technologies enabling artists more than hurting them.

This has happened in a different (non-AI, but "technology enables") way already with other forms of creativity. While it is true that more people become enabled, its not clear that this is overall a good thing. The benefits of more people empowered and enabled to engage in self-expression has to be traded off against the problems associated with discovery caused by their work becoming a part of the cultural milieu. People making art in private is almost certainly a good thing without limit; people making art and then making it public is not so clear - most of the work people create (even the best) is just not worth being public, but the self-limiting discrimination that this implies is in short supply in most of us. Yes, it's good you made it. No, it shouldn't be online or public, almost all the time.

I think it'll displace a chunk of what artists do. Anything where there don't have to be super precise specifications for the end result, where there's some leeway and you just need something that goes into a general direction. Which is a non insignificant chunk, and maybe kind of unfortunately also the jobs where you can be more creative about what you're doing. Like if I'm making a magic-like card game and I need illustrations for my playing cards, I could use an AI for that. If I want a comic strip or an illustration of a specific object, it's probably a poor fit.

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