I got called out - My stance on AI.

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[fiftyforty]

You say using AI in healthcare, and most ppl here don't mind that, but I already remember somebody got denied a procedure because AI algorithm decided so. Healthcare insurance companies about to start using it as a crutch, and just go "well our computer said so", not having to help pay people for their procedures (unless the bare minimum) and just extract as much money as possible out of people even in that field

[InzidenzPanik]

The AI problem is not an AI problem, but a capitalism problem. Rich techbros feeling entitled to the work and skillset of creatives.

1-Corporate driven
2-Non consensual use of small artist work
3-Derivative and profit aimed

Things like magic wand and channel selections can be called “ai” and they still need knowledge and skill.

[Popper_Drop]

I highly doubt there are any artists out there who are mad at AI being used in healthcare, that's a bit of a fallacious statement. Not to mention that conflating the use of AI between two different fields is kind of ridiculous, they're just not the same because they have the same title. That type of AI can be used to save lives, the AI used for art is doing nothing of the sort and has been trained unethically with the intellectual property of thousands if not millions of artists and it's only going to grow if it's supported.

There was no "opt in", it was always "fend for yourself" or just get taken advantage of. A machine owned by a corporation that just decided to rip thousands of hours of work from artists completely uncompensated. This is not the same as artists referencing the work of other artists, it's closer to some scammer who's stolen a bunch of people's artwork and reselling it as references or fully completed pieces to other people. It's incredibly unethical and spits in the face of all the people who've worked for years on their skill.
8:30 I genuinely don't really know what the point is here that you're trying to make. Is it that the fact that AI would be able to trace back to the influences used in the artwork like a human would never be able to? Because... that's not great. It can trace itself back sure because it's a machine with meta data and it made the image from those sources. The human influence isn't supposed to be a one-to-one, it's an influence of other people's artwork to make into your own. Blended into your own with passion, soul and intent behind it. You can always study from other artists instead, that's always been available and acceptable.

AI also doesn't know WHY it does what it does, the only way you can properly learn artistic skills is through the input of a human being with a brain and actual thought process, not an algorithm. The idea that "oh well, it's here now and isn't going anywhere so we might as well use it" is also kind of wild. I agree that there needs to be laws and regulations around it but the only possible way I could see it becoming ethical is if they completely tanked all of their systems, started from scratch and then ONLY trained it on things that are LEGITIMATELY public domain or art that was willfully volunteered by any artist who wants to for some reason take part in it. Otherwise it's blatant theft and will always be disgusting and snaky.
Like you mentioned how some people pointed out things in your artwork, the hair really does look like AI. There's random circles of hair that don't seem to be attached to anything (I know there's also it getting thinner and thicker inexplicably but personally I enjoy that) but some of it just didn't seem to really make any sense unless her hair was being chopped up

In saying all that most of the hatred in my tone and I would assume many others is mostly directed towards artistic AI itself, frustration extending to the video you made. I do believe that people can change and grow and I'm glad that you feel excited to work on more traditional artwork as well. I genuinely wish you the best, I can see you're trying to come from a neutral place but to a lot of people it really doesn't feel that way so I still hope you truly do take into account just why people ARE so angry about the use of AI (in art specifically)

[spaceghostx]

why can’t AI do my laundry instead of take over my career

[nastha]

if techbros are defending you over your ai stance and fellow artists are bashing you, maybe reflect on what you are encouraging.

[ericmasker]

3:05-3:38 this was absolutely one of the most fundamentally flawed and frustrating false equivalencies from an artist I have ever heard on the use of AI generated imagery. I was really trying to temper my reactions and grant as much benefit of the doubt for the first 3 minutes of this video until you said this. I was dismayed at the subtle and shallow shifts of accountability you were dodging until this moment. This type of deflection is something we see from politically polarizing figures who know the ethical marsh their treading, is precarious at best.
I find it almost impossible to take anything else you say going forward with credibility or authenticity. I went from dismayed to disillusioned, and your stance throughout this monologue made it even cloudier where I feel you truly stand. You cannot shirk the accountability the size of your platform gives you by saying, "I was dealing with my own worries about being replaced, " and expect your audience to be empathetic.

[Crickx]

Ethics aside, another problem with using A.I. as reference is that it is crappy reference. These systems don't understand what a face or a hand is. They just associate pixels. It is very likely you are getting outputs with the wrong proportions, lighting, anatomy, etc. I mean there is a reason we still do LIVE figure drawing and do studies from real life objects. Even photographs are problematic because because it messes with you depth perception (and these would be a way better solution than A.I. while in a pinch of not having live subjects available).

[CreateNowSleepLater]

I am in no position to judge anyone. I think the one area we need to be careful is normalizing the use of AI in anyway for creative work. The jobs are already being lost. YouTube is flooded with how to do X with AI. People are flooding Amazon with AI generated books. We aren’t going to win this but we can carve out a niche for hand made / non AI work. That said, the entry point for a young person into a professional art career has changed. I wouldn’t give up your art, but I might get a trade that can put food on that table while you build your brand.

[thatmfdiego]

I'm glad you came out to clear the air, I love your content, and I say this with love, but your position on AI is a bit puzzling.

Artists aren't fighting against AI as a nebulous concept that also happens to encapsulate its use in things like farming, medicine, manufacturing, etc, artists are fighting image generation, which, thus far, has had 0 practical use for most people. Every single time I've spoken to, or listened to the average person talk about these generators, its always filled with frustration that they are toys, and are impossible to direct with precision. The notion that these issues will eventually be solved and AI will reach the nuance necessary to emulate a human is a techbro pipe dream that has been getting called out by analysts all over the world (i.e. the Goldman Sachs report that came out recently), as the amount of resources necessary to make that a reality are simply not there. Chips, power infrastructure, training material, none of it is infinite. These companies WANT you to embrace this tech, they WANT you to start thinking there is some way to fit it into your pipeline, because if you don't, their billions of dollars they've poured into these developments will be for nothing, and the bubble will pop. We don't have any immediate need to "adapt".

So, why encourage others to purchase subscriptions and use this tech, even if in a more "ethical" manner? We all know how tempting it must be for all beginners to have a second pair of hands to nudge their art to the next level, so you must understand that by putting out that video you are likely pushing artists that may have strayed away from the tech to all of a sudden rely on it for reference and ideas, which is not good. Beyond the fact that you are financially supporting these companies, it's just simply not at a level where I think it is appropriate to use as a tool, especially not for high level tasks like composition or accuracy in form, and even less so for beginner artists (which form a large part of your audience). These tools can easily introduce big issues in pieces and an overall reliance on getting these perfect snapshots of compositional ideas and direct references.

Although I definitely like the spirit of keeping the video up to show your growth, I do think that the video shows a use that can be negative to artists. Although a lot of the elements of your piece for that video are really cool and work well, the hair and its place in the composition just feels like AI, it's disjointed and takes away from the piece, so, seeing how it can dampen the impact of a piece from an artist of your level, I can't help but fear how the usage of this tech could trick lesser skilled artists into overreaching and overall missing critical steps in their journey. Using AI to increase complexity to a level that you aren't comfortable reaching yourself is a surefire way to introduce A LOT of potential issues you are not prepared to deal with, and as such, it could result in bad habits, poor fundamentals and overall a dysmorphia between your own ability and the "ability" of the AI model. With the sheer amount of reference packs and resources out there to help young artists, I think early adoption of this tech just proves to be far more harmful than helpful

I definitely get where you're coming from, and your heart is in the right place, but we shouldn't be premature in this adaptation for the sake of it, that has its own set of consequences.

[spaceghostx]

I definitely don’t hate you in any way. We are all human trying our best in this life. I just don’t think there’s any ethical way of using AI in art at this present time.

[tronvillain]

Bringing up other machine learning (say, medical diagnostics) is a red herring. It's irrelevant to generative AI making images, text, or audio, so stop bringing it up.

[arneoldenhave]

I fear big tech is starting to sponsor influencers to slowly influence the public to eventually get their way.

[Vexmus_]

I mean, as someone who wants to go into concept art, oh boy theres going to be 0 jobs going by the time i get out of college. Ai exists soley for profit. No matter the use, be it an 'assistant' or a 'tool, ' it is soley for profit.

If an artist wants a reference, just like we have since the beginning of art, they can go outside and get one. We never needed ai before to create art, and im tired of ai tech bros acting like we do.

[Sansiia]

Ergojosh, you asked your community if they wanted a video on AI, they said "no we don't" and you did it anyway.
You didn't deserve pure hatred, but negativity was bound to happen.

The true problem: your usage of ai did not enhance your creative process in any way shape or form, it lengthened it to 100+ hours and I'd argue watered down your initial ideas. Let the ethics and morals aside: this is not a thing that benefits drawing and painting, it's a tool that works best when drawing and painting are EXCLUDED.

This "adapt or die" stuff peddled around really has me questioning, adapting to what exactly since integrating it in the workflow severely downgrades the process and result?

So you ignored your community's wishes, then showed us the weakness of integrating this thing in the workflow of a real artist.

[alexoxo]

It’s strange that we live in a world where “it’s soulless” isn’t enough of an explanation for people

[heavensfaye]

I don't believe you deserved to be personally attacked for your stance on AI. That being said, your opinion on AI as a "tool" reflects the way you see art and its process - simply a means to a final product.

Which makes sense, seeing as you're a social media artist that is reliant on your artwork being glossy and pretty enough to stand out among everything else online, while also producing pieces fast enough to keep with the audiences' ever-changing interests. In this sort of "industrialization" of art, it makes perfect sense that AI seems like a "helpful" tool to you and others in your position.

In the end, AI is actually a destructive tool in the process of learning art as a SKILL. Being an artist is not just being a machine that produces pretty pictures - it's a trade, like baking, or sculpting. It's about strengthening your brain muscle as much as it is the more subtle muscle memory of your fingers and wrist. AI doesn't actually "help" any of that - it's a shortcut, plain and simple.

It's a tool to help artists get out finished pieces faster in this industrialization era of art, while also needing to spend less time on learning, and compensating for gaps in your artistic knowledge. So honestly, more power to you if you can still proudly use AI while swallowing that pill. Maybe it's a privilege to be an artist that doesn't feel the need to stress or rely on AI. But I think we can all start by being more honest with ourselves - and why we either vouch for, or against, AI generation within art or the art process.

[elle-iza]

As an artist and a nurse I can clearly say: I don't want AI being involved in art, but I fear and dread AI being involved in health care in a way I can hardly express to people, who don't have much insight into the medical field. That's a can of worms we really don't want to open.

[alisonalexandre]

So, things didn't go as he expected, he came to make a typical youtuber apology video, the old video was renamed, and now he's attacking a strawman by ignoring any real criticism of the use of AI. Man, that's low.

[GeminEyeArt]

Just learn to draw hair bro. Jokes aside what you’re completely missing is that you’re a role model, and as such there are young future artists who aspire to be who they THOUGHT you were. And when you had the choice to either TRAIN to overcome your weaknesses or to find some ethically questionable shortcut, you chose the latter and there’s absolutely nothing aspirational about that. Weak. And today the youth need experienced people with SPINE to stand on principle and pave a pathway that prioritizes the integrity of our craft. Take the hard road, and I say this respectfully.

Not only that, but this wasn’t some League of Legends splash page. There is no reason a stylized nude figure should take 112 hrs, no pro is sustaining a living this way. That’s more than 2 full time work weeks! And the people following you aren’t dumb enough to believe this is okay for anyone planning to build a future in this competitive field, so you shouldn’t treat them like they’re that gullible. It’s not a flex to spend more hours on something just to prove it took effort, especially when it’s needless. People say WOW when you make it look effortless without some needless AI crutch.

I would never disrespect the intelligence of the people who look to my example in the way that you did. As much as you deserve this blowback, I hope you turn this around without doubling down on BS, not as much for your sake as for the people looking up to you.

[elsevillaart]

The disappointing part of the video is that you lose faith in yourself, "if you don't believe in yourself, believe in me that I believe in you". An artist should learn again to love their flawed styles...thats what makes us unique not the A.I. plastic surgery.