Corridor Digital is a production company based in Los Angeles and is famous online their content based around visual effects. Within the last week, they have released a video called “Anime Rock, Paper, Scissors”, a video that utilizes AI.

AI-generated art has been a controversial topic amongst artist and animation communities many question its ethical applications and whether or not it would render artists as obsolete.

I happen to be a big supporter of animation, I think it is a medium that remains untapped since attitudes in this part of the world largely see it as being “just for kids”, and when it isn’t targeted at children, it is assumed that is must be something in the vain of Family Guy or Rick & Morty. And I think the best animation is always that which has a human touch.

To circle back to the video mentioned above, the breakdown video on how it was made revealed it was more along the lines of something like rotoscoping, the process of animating by tracing over motion picture footage (think a-ha’s Take on Me music video) or when you put a filter on your phone. So Corridor wasn’t really inventing the wheel here, just utilizing a different technique to achieve a similar result.

The video itself is distractingly bad in terms of “animation” with some very bizarre faces and hands morphing into blobs.

Now I should not how this technology works.

The programs work by inputing prompts for it to learn, and in some cases, things it shouldn’t include (or negative prompts). Now that is a bit of an oversimplification, but is nonetheless, the gist of it. It should be important to note that these programs mostly work by taking other pieces of art along with the prompts to Frankenstein something derived from the images it was trained on. Now if that sounds like plagiarism…. well it kind of is.

The result are also often bizarre with faces having an uncanny value look to them and the program often times doesn’t appear to be able to make hands (a problem both anyone starting out drawing and Rob Liefeld can related to).

The aforementioned Corridor video even needed to utilize frames from the anime film Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust to achieve the desired look they wanted, and trained their program to “animate” the live action footage they shot in that style.

As of right now, AI art is not protected by copyright as it lacks human authorship. Now that doesn’t mean that is set in stone. It would only take one company with a lot of pull to be able to get things changed if they saw profit in it similar to how Disney had copyright law changed with regard to Mickey Mouse.

Do I think AI-generated art threatens human artists? Possibly, it all depends on whether or not potential employers or companies see the programs as more cost saving than having to pay a real person for the work.

At its current level, the programs largely make inferior products compared to that of real artists. And of course that is perhaps subjective, but then again, all art is.

But the technology is changing and ever evolving. Look at where voice generating AI is now. You can watch a video on YouTube of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Donald Trump and Joe Biden putting together a Super Smash Bros. tier list or playing Minecraft and the voices largely sound just like them.

Harmless stuff sure, but if we want to get really dystopian we could talk about combining AI voice generation with deepfake technology to have make entirely fabricated, but realistic looking videos of someone committing a crime (kind of like that Michael Crichton novel Rising Sun, but with less Japanophobia).

There is definitely an overlap between proponents of AI-generated art and those that were pushing NFTs not too long ago. Perhaps people will recognize AI art as the same kind of get rich quick scheme as NFTs and the programs will largely remain in use by the small niche that enjoy it.

Regardless, I think the big take away from all of this is that we, as a society, should place more value on artists. Just here in Ponca City, we have an incredible art scene with many talented individuals and the backing of the City Arts organization.

You could ask an AI art program to make you a mural incorporating foxes and Ponca City iconography in a pop art style, but are the results really the same as someone actually adding their own lived experience and style to a piece?

I don’t think so. How this technology shapes out and what it means remains to be seen. However, I for one support artists and just like photography didn’t stop paintings from existing, I think artists will strive and endeavor.

So go support a local artist, ask for a commission or just share a piece of art you love on social media.