Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Can AI replace artists? Will there still be jobs for professionally trained artists in the years ahead? Should you still pursue art as a career path?
I am joined by one of my favorite teachers and artists Adam Duff (who also happens to be one of the most reassuring art voices on YouTube) to dig into these incredibly difficult questions.
While AI art has and will continue to cause ripples, I don't think it will be the Artpocalypse that many are predicting. Join me and Adam to get our takes on where this is all heading and why artists need to just keep being artists.
_______________________
CONNECT with Hardy Fowler
→ digitalpaintingstudio.com
→ instagram.com/hardy_digitalpaintingstudio
→ artstation.com/hfowler
CONNECT with Adam Duff
→ youtube.com/channel/UCf-cfRJyxATGTgWGiFkFUWA
→ lucidpixul.com
→ instagram.com/adam_duff_lucidpixul
→ adamduff.com
_______________________
UPDATE: The comments have been incredible and really eye opening so I wanted to include some additional resources.
For an incredibly well informed, substantive take on the alarming ethical implications of AI, definitely check out Steven Zapata's excellent Video: The End of Art, An Argument Against Image AIs youtube.com/watch?v=tjSxFAGP9Ss&t=412s
Steven also gathered some incredibly useful resources on the topic and how we can organize against it which I will definitely be doing (posted below with his permission). Older artists like me have an obligation to do everything we can to help younger artists have the same opportunities - while I don't know how exactly how that fight will take shape, I will definitely be in it.
Follow The Concept Art Association for further news on organizing against AIs, and check out their recent AI town hall video: https://www.youtube.com/c/ConceptArtA...
Equity is fighting against AIs replacing many kinds of artists, their efforts are relevant to all creatives and they have good resources here: https://www.equity.org.uk/getting-inv...
A site to investigate just one of the LAION data sets to see if you or your art are in there. A note that this site offers to sign you up for a future opt-out product- I have no idea what the nature of that product will be and would urge caution: haveibeentrained.com
Open AI explaining how they invented their legal structure because nothing else worked for them: openai.com/blog/openai-lp
Stable Diffusion release info with no mention of “artists”: https://stability.ai/blog/stable-diff...
Imagen release info that explains how the data set it is trained on is “uncurated” and contains “a wide range of inappropriate content including pornographic imagery, racist slurs, and harmful social stereotypes.” This is another page you should do a ctrl-f search for “artist” on: https://imagen.research.google/
Dance Diffusion explanation: https://wandb.ai/wandb_gen/audio/repo...
Example of private medical imagery being used to train the AI: https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ad58...
A great article summarizing the data laundering techniques of AI companies: https://waxy.org/2022/09/ai-data-laun...
California Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo writes OSTP urging investigation into unsafe AI release models, namely Stable Diffusion: https://eshoo.house.gov/media/press-r...
The best non-technical explanation I’ve seen on how diffusion models work: tiktok.com/t/ZTRHrUyDM
A good semi-technical explanation of how diffusion models like Stable Diffusion work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CIpz...
#conceptart #digitalpainting #aiart #howtodraw #howtopaint #artcareer #adamduff #lucidpixul #hardyfowler #digitalpaintingstudio
Can AI replace artists? Will there still be jobs for professionally trained artists in the years ahead? Should you still pursue art as a career path?
I am joined by one of my favorite teachers and artists Adam Duff (who also happens to be one of the most reassuring art voices on YouTube) to dig into these incredibly difficult questions.
While AI art has and will continue to cause ripples, I don't think it will be the Artpocalypse that many are predicting. Join me and Adam to get our takes on where this is all heading and why artists need to just keep being artists.
_______________________
CONNECT with Hardy Fowler
→ digitalpaintingstudio.com
→ instagram.com/hardy_digitalpaintingstudio
→ artstation.com/hfowler
CONNECT with Adam Duff
→ youtube.com/channel/UCf-cfRJyxATGTgWGiFkFUWA
→ lucidpixul.com
→ instagram.com/adam_duff_lucidpixul
→ adamduff.com
_______________________
UPDATE: The comments have been incredible and really eye opening so I wanted to include some additional resources.
For an incredibly well informed, substantive take on the alarming ethical implications of AI, definitely check out Steven Zapata's excellent Video: The End of Art, An Argument Against Image AIs youtube.com/watch?v=tjSxFAGP9Ss&t=412s
Steven also gathered some incredibly useful resources on the topic and how we can organize against it which I will definitely be doing (posted below with his permission). Older artists like me have an obligation to do everything we can to help younger artists have the same opportunities - while I don't know how exactly how that fight will take shape, I will definitely be in it.
Follow The Concept Art Association for further news on organizing against AIs, and check out their recent AI town hall video: https://www.youtube.com/c/ConceptArtA...
Equity is fighting against AIs replacing many kinds of artists, their efforts are relevant to all creatives and they have good resources here: https://www.equity.org.uk/getting-inv...
A site to investigate just one of the LAION data sets to see if you or your art are in there. A note that this site offers to sign you up for a future opt-out product- I have no idea what the nature of that product will be and would urge caution: haveibeentrained.com
Open AI explaining how they invented their legal structure because nothing else worked for them: openai.com/blog/openai-lp
Stable Diffusion release info with no mention of “artists”: https://stability.ai/blog/stable-diff...
Imagen release info that explains how the data set it is trained on is “uncurated” and contains “a wide range of inappropriate content including pornographic imagery, racist slurs, and harmful social stereotypes.” This is another page you should do a ctrl-f search for “artist” on: https://imagen.research.google/
Dance Diffusion explanation: https://wandb.ai/wandb_gen/audio/repo...
Example of private medical imagery being used to train the AI: https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ad58...
A great article summarizing the data laundering techniques of AI companies: https://waxy.org/2022/09/ai-data-laun...
California Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo writes OSTP urging investigation into unsafe AI release models, namely Stable Diffusion: https://eshoo.house.gov/media/press-r...
The best non-technical explanation I’ve seen on how diffusion models work: tiktok.com/t/ZTRHrUyDM
A good semi-technical explanation of how diffusion models like Stable Diffusion work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CIpz...
#conceptart #digitalpainting #aiart #howtodraw #howtopaint #artcareer #adamduff #lucidpixul #hardyfowler #digitalpaintingstudio
