Images were created with Stable Diffusion. I spent an hour rolling the word phrase dice trying to get decent image of the robot drawing on a screen. The results were interesting, but not what I was looking for…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are now able to generate high quality images based on text prompts (https://youtu.be/L3G0dx1Q0R8). You can get great results with very little time invested, so there’s no doubt this will change how most art is done—and more than just visual art. This also affects creative writing, journalism, music even recipes. It’s not that AI art is better than human-produced art; it’s just so fast at generating content. It’s also clear the technology will get faster and better as time goes on.
How will this affect you?
Machines replacing the work of humans is not new. Go back to the lore of John Henry, where a man performing at the peak of human abilities raced to outperform a stream drill. Now, with modern mining equipment, the idea of using human labor to drill through solid rock seems foolish. Now, a drill operator sits on a large, powerful machine and controls the drill. When approaching this new AI technology, there will be points when it is equally foolish to attempt a race with a metaphorical steam drill.
Brave new world?
AI is disruptive because it can greatly reduce the time and effort required to produce artwork. Right now, the tools are fairly clunky but in next few years will bring lots of changes. The trick is to learn how to operate these new tools and adapt them into your workflow. Just remember in the end, it’s still about humans creating content for humans. AI is simply a tool to make this process more efficient.
What to expect
Does this mean that visual art will be relegated to nothing more than a Google-like search, fumbling around to find the right phrase to get what you’re looking for? No, not if you want to get the best from your tools.
Btw, way back in the 1990s, I did a fair amount of work with neural networks, but those never really took off because computer hardware was too limited. Now, as the field has started making good progress, I’ve kept an eye on the technology and how it has changed over time. I mention this because my observations are more than simple guesswork.
Text prompts are too vague. Artists need easy ways to stage a scene, define a color palette, control object placement, etc., so the AI production process will be a feedback loop between AI and the artist. Your job will be to work collaboratively with AI and control the outcome. This means workflows like feeding in a rough sketch and a text description, and the AI spits out images. You’ll pick and modify the image and the prompt, modify, then feed that back through again, continuing until you reach the desired outcome. The tools for this are fairly basic now, but they will evolve quickly, giving you more control over how AI will modify each successive iteration of the art. Your skills as an artist, such as drawing, painting, composing, and your overall vision, will still be needed to control the outcome.
How does a XOOT_Pro fit into all this?
At first the new AI tools had me questioning the future for the XOOT (the company). After some thought it’s clear that AI tools will change artist workflows. This plays to the strengths of the XOOT_Pro. Such as changing from mouse-and-keyboard mode to drawing mode with a quick flip.
As workflows change, XOOT_Pro is here to help you ergonomically accommodate new tasks and new screens.
-Chris