Just saw that Instagram test ran an AI and OF COURSE they chose to use a Black woman. Years ago, maybe 3 or 4, I said that the only reason companies were eager to develop AI was so that they could tell a computer to “tell me a Black story”, then reap the rewards without paying any Black artists (I’d dig up screenshots of this conversation but it’s buried somewhere in my archived Twitter DMs). A few months after writing that, Shudu, an AI fashion model “from” South Africa debuted on Instagram. Shudu (or, rather, her tech bro creators) secured a modeling gig and made it into Vogue. We should have burned it down then, but we didn’t, and now we have an AI “proud, Black, queer, truth-telling momma” launching her IG account. (update: “Mama Liv” as well as other AI accounts were taken down following “backlash“)
My annoyance with the AI debate is that it’s usually centered on AI not being as “good” as humans artists. And while that may be true, it’s not the fight we should be fighting. Do you think the guy who gave AI the prompt “Taylor Swift covered in marinara sauce” cares that her wrist is bent at a weird angle or that there are two light sources in the image? Hell no. AI is good enough for all the average person cares about “art”. The issue has always been who gets paid. Vogue can subscribe once to Shudu and never hire a model again. Instagram can run the Mama Liv AI and never do revenue sharing with influencers again (quick side note: I find it incredibly creepy that HiMamaLiv kind of reads like “Hi, I’m Alive”). Hollywood would love to replace actors and animators, and I’m sure there are publishing higher ups who wonder if ghost writing could just be handed over to ChatGPT and cover design to Canva. It’s always been about the money.
Anyway, I’m not going to harp on the ugly side of this debate. I’m going to share proof that supporting human artists feels good! Check this out…
Back in my Twitter days, I followed a lot of artists. Periodically these artists would open up for commissions and if I found myself in a place where I could support them, I would order their take on my old profile picture. If that seems narcissistic, well, A) I kinda am and B) I originally tried “one person stealing french fries from another person” but that turned out to be too open-ended for what I wanted to be a simple commission (what characters? what’s the setting? what type of fries? steak or crinkle cut?). I received a number of these but I never knew what to do with them. Most are buried (again in my archived Twitter DMs), but here are a few favorites that I had saved in weird places.
They’re all great but that last one really cracked me up.
All to say, it’s very easy to take art for granted. And, personally, I have a very hard time balancing how much I like a piece of art and how much I’m willing to pay for it. But I do know this, there’s no piece of AI art I like enough to pay one cent for. Unless, maybe, it’s me covered in marinara sauce.