Art in The Time of AI

This year at the 2025 Oscars, a new kind of controversy emerged. The Brutalist went home with a whopping 10 Oscars, but debate arose when Adrien Brody, who played the protagonist in the film, won the Oscar for Best Actor over Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown. This controversial win has started arguments not just because of a preference in Hollywood crushes, but because Brody’s Hungarian accent in The Brutalist was enhanced by AI. Meanwhile, Chalamet’s Bob Dylan accent and role as a whole were developed over 5 years. The debates this win has sparked have brought a larger conversation into public light: What effect is the development of AI having on art?

If you are anywhere on the internet, it’s almost certain you have come across AI-generated art, whether you realize it or not. Many people’s Instagram reels are abundant with AI videos of cats in weird outfits or fantastical landscapes. While this kind of AI content is clearly fake and not directly harming anyone, it’s just as common to encounter what seems to be real art only to find that it’s been made by a computer. It’s alarming how many times I’ve come across beautiful illustrations on an online platform that impresses me until I read the comments section and find it’s AI-generated.

Furthermore, our exposure to man-made art decreases as AI-generated art dominates more of the internet. This poses new dangers to artists everywhere, who are already struggling in the face of the lack of job opportunities, funding for essential programs, and even a common lack of appreciation for their craft in a world speeding towards domination by modern technology. As of April 2024, from a survey of over 800 artists, Society of Authors reported that 26% of illustrators had already lost work and 37% had experienced a decrease in pay, all due to the use of generative AI by employers. These numbers only cover a small demographic of artists, and as the NSAA predicts, will continue to drop, as they forecast a 10% decline in state’s art approbation funds for 2025.

Most of all, the insertion of AI into the world of art is not just a danger to the livelihoods of artists everywhere, but it presents an unprecedented attack on what creativity means for humanity. Art is the expression of the human experience and point of view, emotional, situational, or anything else. Art is defined by its humanity. It’s innate within us - the first discovered drawing made by Homosapiens dates back to 73,000 years ago. Prehistoric cave drawings from across the whole world represent situations and feelings people still share today, revealing that children would scribble with charcoal-like crayons when bored, or people drew beloved pets. Curiosity, emotional capacity, and creativity are natural human traits that define all of our great endeavors across time, artistic or not, and the overhaul of creative efforts for AI (which has an estimated global water usage of 6.6 billion cubic meters by 2027) disparages an innate part of humanity.

We’re living in the age of an AI boom. While everyone struggles to keep up with this quickly changing environment, pay attention to the world of art and give your support, and even focus on creating yourself!