Key Takeaways
- AI art often has strange aberrations when closely examined, lacking logic and definition.
- The generic nature of AI art limits its creativity, rarely breaking new ground.
- Most AI art remains on screens, not dominating over human-made art, and lawsuits over copyrights are prevalent.
A deeper look at AI-generated art reveals there are plenty of reasons why it’s just not as brilliant as you first imagined. From lack of details to weird errors, the internet is filling up with tons of bad AI art.
Taking a Closer Look
The magic of AI art is that it looks incredible when you first see it, but once you take a closer look you start to notice weird aberrations. I put this theory to test by gathering some AI images that I had made and seeing what errors I could find when I studied the image up close.
Here’s an oil painting of some vegetables on a table that I created using Midjourney. While the color and composition are pleasing, you’ll notice that the carrot is growing from what should be corn.
In my “1970 World Fair” billboard scene, I was so focused on creating text in Midjourney that I didn’t realize how much of the background was jumbled. You can see that the edge of the footpath blends into the road, while parts of the apartment buildings look like they were cut and pasted from another image.
AI art often fails at simple logic in a way that a human wouldn’t, while background elements can be blurred, smudged, and lack clear definition. Other times the errors are even more plain to see, like badly generated hands or misspelled words.
Amazing or Generic?
AI art is only as good as the person who uses it, so it’s no surprise that tons of AI art on the internet ends up looking the same.
There is a difference between people like me who throw a handful of words into an AI image generator for fun, and people who put in an enormous amount of effort to learn how to use Midjourney to its full potential. But browsing the Midjourney feed featuring the latest user-generated images, it’s easy to see that a lot of AI art ends up being generic rather than mind-blowing.
Part of why it’s difficult to create a masterpiece of AI art is that the system isn’t designed to invent new genres, instead they are built to generate images based on what they have seen before during training.
In other words, it’s fantastic at mimicking popular art styles, but it’s difficult to break out of those categories to create something truly unique.
Once the novelty wears off, AI also lacks something else that is present in art made by human hands: the story of hard work, study, and unpredictable imagination. Typing a few sentences into an AI image generator just doesn’t cut it.
Failing to Make It Beyond Our Screens
In late 2022, Jason Allen won an art competition worth a few hundred dollars for a work he created using Midjourney. As reported by the BBC, he declared “Art is dead” and for a brief moment artists really did ask, is this the end? According to Jason, “It [was] over. A.I. won. Humans lost.”
At the time of writing in 2024, from where I’m standing, humans have won in the long run. Museums and galleries are still showing real human art, while AI art isn’t being sold for thousands of dollars to private collectors.
In fact, most AI art never makes it beyond our phone or computer screens. The large majority of what is being generated is shared as a hobby on forums. For the most part, AI art hasn’t taken over human art.
Instead, AI companies are entangled in lawsuits from companies like Getty Images claiming copyright infringement or independent groups of artists battling against big AI companies using their images for training data. As reported by the AP News, AI art stands at legal crossroads.
Overrun With Mediocre Algorithms
There’s a seemingly endless number of companies boasting AI image generators that don’t come close to the power of Midjourney’s AI engine, which by now you might know is my preferred choice. If you compare Midjourney images to another site called Craiyon, the difference is pretty clear.
AI art created using Craiyon tends to look more airbrushed and cartoony, lacking any real depth of detail. Out of all the AI image generators, I wouldn’t say Craiyon has the worst algorithm either.
With every company jumping on the AI train, there are all kinds of apps out there that boast the power to create AI art but are really just churning out troves of tacky AI art.
With these apps, “Art” seems to be a broad definition, with most images being more entertaining than amazing. Often they’re overly saturated and terribly cheesy too. It’s safe to say you won’t be winning an Art prize with these AI apps.
On the surface, AI art truly seems impressive, but now that we’ve grown accustomed to the idea that anyone can “make” art with AI, it’s time we started sorting the good from the bad.
