Zynu's Blog

Why I Don't Use or Support GenAI

GenAI creates imitations of existing art by using millions of stolen work/content, makes it easy for anyone to create inappropriate content/misinformation/scams, makes it harder to differentiate between (and find) real content and fake content, and also negatively impacts the environment. We’re unnecessarily bringing harm to people and the planet just (for the machine) to make “art” when we could just make it ourselves.Art is supposed to be about the journey, the process, and self-expression. Everyone has a different amount of knowledge, skills, and experience; as well as different preferences, interests, inspirations, and observations that make their art uniquely theirs. Using genAI, however, will make everyone’s content look and sound the same. Companies replacing human artists with genAI will do that to films, shows, games, etc, too. The reason films, shows, games etc are as good as they are is because multiple different people (who specialize in different areas) work together to create and share their own ideas, knowledge, and skills.Instead of directing a machine that uses stolen/work content to make “art” for you, we should be learning/making art ourselves or commissioning a real artist who actually does the work (drawing, writing, composing music, sculpting, voice acting, etc etc). If human artists also only used other people’s work/content (without consent) to create art (especially work from the best artists), we’d all be making “good art.” This is how AI prompters and genAI are able to do what they do. They need the work of human artists/creators (especially highly-skilled professionals) in order to make “art” without having to know/learn any art skills.A lot of people (even other types of artists) don’t understand why/how AI-generated content is different from digital/traditional art, so I’m going to explain.What exactly makes a piece a masterpiece or high-quality? How do you render a face so it looks 3D? How do you draw correct anatomy and facial features? How do you draw a pose in perspective or foreshortening? How do you take inspiration from multiple sources without literally using the sources? How do you stylize a character/person/etc without making them look uncanny, etc etc; These are (just a few) things that AI prompters do not consider or know about. There’s a reason why it takes human artists so many years of hard work and practice to get good at art and have a good understanding of it. It’s not just about having the idea.Everyone has ideas and can describe their ideas. What differentiates artists from “everyone” is the ability to express those ideas themselves, using their own knowledge, skills, etc. Using genAI does not make one an artist; Directing the AI until you get the result you want is exactly the same as a commissioner telling an artist what to draw and fix. If you tell a human artist what to draw but give them very vague instructions/feedback, they won’t be able to do a very good job executing your idea. However, if you give them specific/detailed instructions/feedback and lots of references, they’ll be able to do much better. The latter is basically what AI prompters are doing. They aren’t making the art or actually editing it themselves; They just know how to order the AI properly. Some AI users argue that it takes a lot of time and skill to refine AI-generated content and get it exactly the way they want; but knowing how to draw and edit something yourself is very different from knowing how to tell someone/something what to draw/edit. Human artists have to do both of these things (and more); They have to know how to draw, edit, and tell their own bodies how to make art.One of the reasons why drawing is difficult is because you also have to train your hands/arms/etc, not just your mind. Even if you study a lot of images/books/etc and have an amazing idea in your head, you won’t be able to make your art look good (or even close to the image in your head) unless you also train your hands/arms/etc. For example, digital/traditional artists have to practice arm/wrist movement and practice drawing the same thing over and over again in order to draw it well. They also have to draw everything (stroke by stroke) while constantly changing their pen pressure, using their whole arm for larger/confident strokes, flicking their wrist, etc. Also, if they do not practice drawing for a long period of time, they’ll forget how to, and will need time getting used to drawing again. Not only do they have to train their bodies and minds, they also have to learn/understand how to use art tools properly (i.e. how to use the program, paint with water, mix paint, use different brush techniques, etc etc). AI-generated content is not the same as human-made art because the process of making them are very, very different.GenAI isn’t a new art form; It just imitates art that already exists. It looks like digital art, 3D, traditional art, photos, videos, etc. With any art media you can tell what it is and what it was drawn/made with. You can’t with AI-generated content because it wasn’t actually drawn or made with art tools (pen, tablet, programs, clay, charcoal, paint, etc). AI should be used as a tool for a small part of the process, (like auto-select, for example) but genAI isn’t a tool; It’s a mass theft + imitation machine that replaces the tools and the entire process.Some people use genAI to “skip” the art journey (because they don’t want to learn), but in order to make high-quality work, you need to have a good understanding of art. The pacing, colors, lighting, type of shot/camera angle, composition, etc all need to be carefully thought out in order to effectively tell a story. This is why so many different artists work together on a film/game/etc (i.e. concept artists, character designers, story artists, 3D modelers, riggers, animators, vfx artists, actors, composers, etc etc). One person can’t excel at everything, which is why we need other people who excel in other areas, especially if we want to make high-quality realistic films/games/etc. AI prompters (and genAI), however, lack the knowledge necessary for effective visual storytelling, which is why most AI-generated content (especially AI-generated “animation”) looks so “off.” The movement is awkward/unnatural, the camera pans or zooms in/out unnecessarily, the lighting doesn’t match the mood of the scene, etc etc. AI-generated content just looks like a “good” render; but good rendering does not make up for "bad" artistic choices/lack of fundamentals. There’s a reason why not everyone can be directors (especially good/successful ones).Now to talk about the impact of genAI on the art world:It’s hard to be an artist in this day and age. Now everyone assumes that all art (or anything on the internet) is AI and accuses artists of using AI without proof, it’s hard to get commissions/sell art or get noticed on social media (since AI prompters flood the internet/social media with hundreds of AI images/videos/music/etc a day), AI companies/prompters use everyone’s work/content without consent/compensation to train their AI, AI prompters copy artists’ art styles without consent + make inappropriate content in their style (i.e. Ghibli-style deportation images), AI prompters use AI to edit artists’ work without consent (to “fix” it, intentionally ruin it, or use it as a “base” for the AI to make a different version of it), and companies replace artists with AI or force them to use it (and expect them to work faster/produce more work) in order to reduce labor/production costs.Art theft has always been a thing, but genAI is making it extremely easy (for anyone) to steal and make fake/inappropriate content. Before genAI, people had to know how to use Photoshop in order to edit something themselves. It takes a lot of skill and time to be able to edit something seamlessly, which is why most people didn’t use this skill to make inappropriate/low-quality content (and especially not hundreds of it like AI users do). GenAI makes it way too easy to “edit,” copy, imitate, and steal (and the law currently does not care), which is why there are so many people abusing this technology.Some people ask: “Why should I care about genAI? It doesn’t affect me personally.” We should all care because genAI affects everyone, and will even more so if it’s not regulated: Deepfakes, voice phishing scams, fake news/misinformation, layoffs, low-quality content, decline in critical thinking skills/problem-solving skills/creativity, increase in GPU prices, increase in electricity/water demand, etc. Right now companies only care about saving/making as much money as possible with genAI, and more people these days would rather use AI than think/learn or do something themselves; Efficiency and making a fast buck are more important to them than quality and ethics. What they don’t understand though, is that society functions when people need each other. People need a job so they can make/spend money, and companies need people to buy their products/services. If companies don’t need people with skills anymore and would rather use genAI to make low-quality content, how will people survive, and who will buy the companies’ products/services? Also, if humans become too reliant on AI that we lose all of our skills/abilities + intelligence, what will happen to humanity? What will happen to the future generations?GenAI is not being used to actually help people or solve the world’s problems. It’s just mainly being used to steal, scam, make inappropriate content, and imitate things that already exist, all while using up the Earth’s resources and harming the environment.The main problems with genAI are that it's unethical, unreliable, and dangerous in the wrong hands, which is why it needs to be regulated. GenAI should only be trained on content that it’s allowed to use, anything made with genAI should be labeled as AI-generated, and the people who give consent to use their work/content should be compensated/credited. AI should also only be used to assist with certain tasks, not replace them (meaning: you should still be doing most of the work, not just using the AI-generated content as is or ordering the AI to make/do everything for you). Instead of replacing skills/hobbies that people like/want to do, AI should be used to solve the world’s problems and do the jobs that no one wants to do. If genAI continues to be unregulated, a lot of people’s lives will be ruined, and the internet will become completely unusable. It is already starting to. Fake art, evidence, videos, photos, music, writing, articles, news, people, artists, etc. It’s getting out of hand.

Beware of Fake Artists / Scammers!

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of AI prompters trying to pretend that they’re real artists in order to get commissions. Please be careful; These AI prompters can make fake process steps/timelapses by tracing the AI image or putting their “sketch” on top of the AI image and erasing it. The “sketch” is either heavily traced or made with a sketch filter on the AI image. Some AI prompters even add a couple brush strokes on top of the AI image, or blend the AI image with a mixer/smudge brush to make it look hand-painted. There are even some AI prompters that take a picture of themselves holding a digital pen or traditional art tools in order to imitate real artists.AI prompters can also just use AI to make fake timelapses too. AI timelapses still aren’t believable yet, but unfortunately it’s enough to deceive non-artists who don’t know what the actual drawing process looks like. I recommend looking up AI timelapses on YouTube and comparing them to timelapses/process videos that were posted before 2020 (preferably of original art/fanart, not studies/copies). Don’t just look for the accounts with a lot of followers; There are a lot of AI users with a lot of followers that pretend to be real artists and post fake timelapses/process.If you want to commission a real artist but are afraid of getting scammed, I highly recommend VGen. Artists have to get an invite code from a verified artist in order to sell commissions on there, so it’s very unlikely that you’ll get scammed on that site. It’s still possible though, so be careful.Before you commission an artist, make sure that the account isn’t an impersonator’s. Check the username and make sure that it doesn’t have any missing or additional letters/numbers/symbols. Look at when their account was created (too new is suspicious), check their entire gallery (if they have works that are drastically different in quality+style, they’re most likely AI-generated content or stolen art), use reverse image search, and see if they have any other social media/websites. Ask the art community if the artist/account is legit and/or what their commission experience was like with them. Some other suspicious things to look out for: they don’t have a Terms and Conditions and/or a commission contract; they want you to pay them first without giving you more details about the commission or before you sign the contract; the art in their profile picture looks AI-generated or is a completely different style than their other art; they contacted you first (especially by DM). Always be wary of people that beg for money or commissions on social media.For artists: If the offer is too good to be true, then it’s most likely a scam (i.e. offering way more than your listed prices). Some other ways to tell it’s a scam: they want to pay by check, crypto, or with an unusual payment method; they “accidentally” sent you extra money and want a refund; they refuse to use invoices or sign your commission contract; they ask for your personal information and refuse to give their own; they give vague information about the project and don’t ask for more details/information about how your commissions work; they want you to click a link (i.e. a fake Paypal link) or move you to a different website/app for the transaction; they get impatient/try to rush you; they’re a new/empty account and/or have an AI profile picture; they have poor grammar and/or sound robotic; they want a portrait of their family member or pet (but you don’t draw portraits) or a completely different style/content than what you usually make, they say they’re a fan of your work but don’t mention anything specific + they don’t follow you/interact with your posts on social media, etc.Another (new) thing to look out for: Be careful of people posting online about “getting scammed by an AI artist.” Some of these people are actually AI users who are trying to take advantage of generous artists and get free art from them. Another method that they use is posting AI-generated book covers, album covers, etc (usually ones that they generated), and then telling people that they can’t afford to hire real artists for their projects. They do this to manipulate artists into giving them free work, and also just to mess with artists who are against genAI.Stay safe out there!

Identifying AI and What to Avoid/Do Instead

Someone asked me how to tell if something is AI or not. Unfortunately, there isn’t a sure way to tell these days. AI detectors are unreliable, and real artists also do make questionable mistakes.Usually, you can tell that it’s AI by the inconsistency (i.e. different size pupils), wonkiness of the lines (i.e. warped lineart/strokes), the amount of limbs/fingers (i.e. six fingers), incorrect designs (i.e. dress shirts without buttons), and things “melting” or morphing/merging together (i.e. a hair strand merging with the eyelid). Most AI-generated images also don’t look painted/drawn, but look as if a bunch of art was mixed together, Liquify-ed (warped), and then excessively sharpened. This is one of the reasons why they look “off” or uncomfortable to look at, because they lack the human touch. As you keep seeing more and more AI-generated content, you’ll also notice that you’ve seen the same uncanny faces/poses/lighting/etc.Unfortunately, some AI models are trained on artists with rough painting styles in order to imitate their hand-drawn brush strokes, so some AI-generated images can actually look consistent and hand-drawn. For these, you really have to zoom in and examine each area closely in order to see the mistakes.For AI users/tracers, they tend to have sudden improvement/change in art style, post fully-rendered “original” pieces/fanart in an unnaturally short amount of time between each piece (and usually different versions of the same content), and have a questionable process (i.e. no sketch, traced lineart, almost no redoing/fixing, poor understanding of the fundamentals such as construction/lighting/etc compared to the quality of the final result, fully rendering one section at a time).But please, don’t accuse people of using AI without proof. Baseless AI accusations can really hurt innocent artists; Your accusations can damage their reputation, discourage them from making/posting art, and cause people to bully them off the internet. Real artists, even highly-skilled professionals, can sometimes make questionable mistakes, too. If their art looks suspicious, do some research on the artist: check out their website, look at their old works, see if they uploaded any process, etc. If they still seem suspicious, ask to see their process (recordings, layers, steps, project files). Fake artists and AI still can’t make believable timelapses/process yet. Keep in mind though that artists may not always have timelapses or multiple layers to show, especially for their older works. Some artists paint on a single layer, don’t have a recording feature in their app/program, don’t have enough storage space on their device to record/store recordings, or just forgot to press record. Before genAI, no one questioned artists whether their art was real or not, so there was no need to record/show the process. Now, all artists (of any skill level) are deemed “guilty (of using AI) until proven innocent,” so it’s a new and frustrating thing that artists have to deal with. If not recordings, they should be able to show process steps or layers used in the work, especially for their next/newest piece(s).Also, if you accuse an artist of using AI and they don’t respond back to you/blocks you/limits their comments, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re using AI. A lot of artists are tired of seeing baseless AI accusations every time they post something, especially on works that they worked hard to create. People accuse everything of being AI these days, even things that are obviously not AI. Some of these accusers are also people who don’t know anything about art and just want to stir up trouble. Instead of accusing someone based on assumptions, ask to see their process.Unfortunately, there are some digital/traditional artists that copy/trace/use AI as reference and claim it as their own creation. There are a few reasons why I strongly discourage copying/tracing/using AI as reference: it takes away originality and your unique style/vision, hinders your growth as an artist (AI-generated content is almost always inaccurate, so you’ll learn the wrong things), and makes it harder for people to tell what’s AI or not.Using the real world as reference/inspiration (your surroundings, your own pictures, other people’s pictures, etc) and doing observational drawings are the best ways to learn/improve. Also studying your favorite artists: analyzing their work, asking yourself what you like about it, and trying to see what techniques they used. There are so many other things to get inspiration from too, like sculptures, toys, films, games, etc.In my opinion, the ultimate goal for an intermediate/advanced artist should be to find their own style that’s different from the thousands of other artists (unless they’re working for a studio). I love seeing different artists making different artistic decisions on the colors, lineart, art style, painting techniques, etc. This is one of the reasons why I’m not a fan of genAI or copying AI-generated content; There’s no individuality or originality. It’s sad to see artists abandoning their identities/unique styles by copying genAI; Now their art just looks the same as every AI user’s…It can be difficult to find your own style if you haven’t practiced/studied enough yet, but once you have the art fundamentals down and start experimenting with different techniques/styles/etc, you’ll be able to find your own style. In fact, some artists may already have their own style without knowing it. Your “style” is basically just a combination of everything that you like (all the different artists, animations, colors, etc etc) and everything that you’ve studied/learned about + your current drawing skills/techniques.

Don’t Give Up!

It pains me to see artists losing motivation or giving up on art because of genAI. While it seems like everyone is talking about AI and how great it is, there are also still a lot of people out there who love and search for art made by humans. As humans, we admire things that take a lot of effort/skills/knowledge to make or do, and we admire people who work hard to learn/grow/improve their skills. We also get inspired when other people like us achieve things that seem impossible or challenging to us. I believe that people who truly love and understand art are the ones who will stick around and support real artists.The future may seem bleak, but eventually, more and more people will realize the value of the human touch and search for quality and originality.People who say that artists need to “adapt or fall behind,” don’t understand that genAI is very different from other technology: Photoshop, cameras, cell phones, calculators, etc weren’t made by stealing/using millions of people’s work/content. GenAI uses people’s work/content without consent or compensation, allows everyone to easily create false news/inappropriate content/etc of anyone/anything, harms the environment, and destroys jobs/passions, etc. It’s also very unreliable; It gives incorrect/dangerous information, reinforces bad thoughts/behaviors, and makes mistakes that take a long time to fix (sometimes even longer than if you were to just do it yourself). It also costs a lot of money and resources, which are not infinite. No other technology has had/caused these many problems, especially ones that affect the entire world. This is why genAI needs to be regulated.GenAI users/supporters don’t want regulations because they care more about efficiency, money, popularity, power, etc. They want to save money on labor/production costs (by not paying artists/creators/etc), make a quick buck, scam, spread misinformation, or make inappropriate content. Also because some think that using genAI is the only way they can make good “art” or be an “artist,” or because they don’t want to put in the effort/time to learn a new skill/improve their current skills. Some people also think that it’s pointless or impossible to try to fight back against it, but just because the world is moving in a direction that doesn’t seem to be stopping, doesn’t mean that we should just let it happen. Why else do we have laws and regulations? If technology (or anything) is unethical and/or dangerous, it must be regulated.For the artists who want to give up because they don’t think they’re good enough: Every artist started with bad work but got to where they are today because they didn’t give up. Art is a skill that can be learned by anyone. Some people may learn/improve faster or slower than others, but everyone has the potential to be an artist. Many people think that you need talent to be an artist, but having artistic talent isn’t enough. Hard work and perseverance are essential to becoming a good artist. Art education and classes can help, but they aren’t necessary; Practice is most important. There are also a lot of great (and free) resources/tutorials online that can help you on your journey. It will be a slow and difficult journey, but you can do it. Just go at your own pace, take breaks when you need to, don’t compare yourself to others, and try to practice/learn as much as you can. Set small goals for yourself every day, take pride in your progress, and visualize yourself getting closer and closer to your main goal. If other people can do it, then so can you.