Popularity of fake Ghibli can make actual Ghibli studio more popular. But I am afraid it’s only because Ghibli studio is already a well-known thing.
Imagine a new previously unknown human artist developing a new style that for some reason many people like a lot. What is going to happen? First, no one is going to wait a few years for a new AI that is trained on that art. Instead, they will give the AI a few pictures as an example, and say “transform this photo of me and my dog into a picture made using this style”. Then they will publish the result.
But now we have a new picture, or maybe dozen new pictures, that have approximately the same style as the original human artist, who probably isn’t even mentioned in the Instagram post or blog that published the pictures. Other people will take these pictures as inputs, and ask the AI to “transform my photo in this style”. The style may become widely popular, but the original human may very likely be ignored. Even worse, their work will no longer be perceived as original, merely as “yet another instance of the recent internet fashion wave”.
I think many popular artists today are popular not only because of their style, but because of the unique ideas and themes they depict. Also, simply knowing that art came from a particular artist can make it appear better (similar to how atmosphere and presentation can improve the subjective taste of food).
Anecdotally, I’m sure GPT-4o can copy the styles of artists I like, but I like these artists because they have very complicated and abstract themes, which it can’t extrapolate. On the other hand, there are pieces of “modern art” like this banana taped to a wall; it was presented in museums and sold for millions, but if I were to tape an orange to the wall, it wouldn’t be recognized the same.
Even before AI, artists have stopped becoming famous for developing new styles, and almost any vague style created by an amateur artist could be replicated by a slightly more talented artist. Yet people continue to make art, usually for themselves and the few people who like whatever niche style.
Popularity of fake Ghibli can make actual Ghibli studio more popular. But I am afraid it’s only because Ghibli studio is already a well-known thing.
Imagine a new previously unknown human artist developing a new style that for some reason many people like a lot. What is going to happen? First, no one is going to wait a few years for a new AI that is trained on that art. Instead, they will give the AI a few pictures as an example, and say “transform this photo of me and my dog into a picture made using this style”. Then they will publish the result.
But now we have a new picture, or maybe dozen new pictures, that have approximately the same style as the original human artist, who probably isn’t even mentioned in the Instagram post or blog that published the pictures. Other people will take these pictures as inputs, and ask the AI to “transform my photo in this style”. The style may become widely popular, but the original human may very likely be ignored. Even worse, their work will no longer be perceived as original, merely as “yet another instance of the recent internet fashion wave”.
I think many popular artists today are popular not only because of their style, but because of the unique ideas and themes they depict. Also, simply knowing that art came from a particular artist can make it appear better (similar to how atmosphere and presentation can improve the subjective taste of food).
Anecdotally, I’m sure GPT-4o can copy the styles of artists I like, but I like these artists because they have very complicated and abstract themes, which it can’t extrapolate. On the other hand, there are pieces of “modern art” like this banana taped to a wall; it was presented in museums and sold for millions, but if I were to tape an orange to the wall, it wouldn’t be recognized the same.
Even before AI, artists have stopped becoming famous for developing new styles, and almost any vague style created by an amateur artist could be replicated by a slightly more talented artist. Yet people continue to make art, usually for themselves and the few people who like whatever niche style.