DeviantArt upsets artists with its new AI art generator, DreamUp

DeviantArt is not the cultural force it once was. All the cool kids moved to Artstation. It is on Artstation images that a lot of these AI tools have been trained.

1. ArtStation got the sweet Epic Games buyout/exit. It is also the better community as it serves as a Github-like professional portfolio for artists.

2. AI-unaided art is on the way to becoming a niche artisanal field. Kids of tomorrow will treat illustration as they do calligraphy, celluloid film, and butter churning.

3. Because of these trends, their userbase will stop growing and eventually dwindle.

DeviantArt sees the writing on the wall. This is a risky but probably necessary pivot, though it will accelerate the loss of their existing userbase.

> 2. AI-unaided art is on the way to becoming a niche artisanal field. Kids of tomorrow will treat illustration as they do calligraphy, celluloid film, and butter chuRning

Maybe I agree 80 percent With this. I teach art and certainly our illustration stream will have to re-think itself.

We are already seeing students of their own accord incorporate AI into their work. Mostly this is for ideation and development. But the best results come from the students who best know the formal language of art. This is not easy to come by and only very experienced artists and art directors speak this language effectively.

This reminds me when I was told “a skilled driver can shift gears better than an automatic”. It was probably true and perhaps even more back then but now the machine is good enough that it’s better than the vast majority of people.

Art is not the same bracket as machine work. Art is a cultural expression and experience. It’s not about who churns out 3000 paintings the fastest, otherwise some speed painters would have won.

I can highly recommend the book “But is it art?” By Cynthia Freeland to get a better perspective on this topic!