AI generated images must be treated differently than traditional art due to the low bar for entry and the speed at which they can be produced.

Forgive me for hijacking this thread, but I often think about this perception, especially while I am crunching for days directing my next work. (I am a game dev and I use the term "crunch" deliberately, having experienced that phenomena.)

On the one hand, I agree that AI-generated content—especially AI-generated images—significantly reduces barriers to entry and offers incredible iteration times, arguably making it too easy for someone to direct low-quality slop at little cost. The Unity game engine did this for indie video games, flooding the Steam store with shovelware. Few audiences want slop, and e6ai's curation helps makes the site better than other boorus by fending off that slop. (Thank you janitors, moderators, and admins!)

On the other hand, that perception holds all AI-generated work in low-esteem, dismissing the reality that dozens of hours of effort can still be necessary to direct, touch-up, cut, and mix AI-generated elements together into coherent, compound works. This seemingly has led to the following consequences on e6ai:

• Directors on e6ai cannot seek to monetize their work like artists on e621 can
• At best, we here are only allowed to sheepishly ask, "if you like my work please consider tipping me, but good luck finding out where" regardless of how much effort was spent to direct that work. By neutering the ability to be compensated for that effort, directing AI-generated works can only remain a hobby. (Before anyone asks, yes I think traditional/digital artists should be paid well not only for their work, but also for the models that are trained on their work!. And yes, I do believe directing AI-generated work can evolve to a place of broad public acceptance—more on that later.)
• Compound works (such as a video containing multiple AI-generated clips) are held to the same strict standard and low-esteem as single-element works (such as a single AI-generated image)
• But the effort to direct the two are not the same. To wit: I have had longform audio-video uploads get deleted from e6ai because of imperfections, and I must admit that stings a lot. Due to the nature of AI-generated video, some of these uploads cannot fixed and reuploaded quickly like AI-generated images can. (An imperfection can appear midway through a video for several frames, and the act of trying to fix the imperfection often causes a completely different result to be generated!) Further, the act of assembling multiple elements into a whole inevitably creates its own imperfections. (Temporal discontinuities, mismatched framerates, mixing errors, and so on.)

I get it: most AI-generated content is soulless slop, where little effort is put in and low-quality results come out. But that does not mean AI-generated content cannot be assembled with love into something greater—I observe this with my own work, and often find parallels with other mediums that we regard warmly.

Namely, do we look down our noses at digital artists, 3D modelers, and 3D animators because they are not painting with oils, sculpting with clay, or acting on stage? Because a computer blends the simulated pigments, retopologies the simulated sculpts, and lerps the simulated motions? In short, do we hold the leaps in digital efficiency against these artists? Did it make creation too easy? Maybe we pushed back decades ago, but now we celebrate them. The digital evolution allowed these some of these artists to 1) get into the arts at all, and 2) more quickly focus on imbuing their creations with soul. Using a computer does not render their art invalid.

With any artform, we must be vigilant against inauthenticity and slop. The stigma around AI-generated content is understandable. But I believe it is only a matter of time before we come to find AI-generation to be an artistic tool like any other, equally capable of brilliance or mediocrity depending on who wields it. Further, brilliance is often found among the imperfections. Therefore, I would like to see the powers-that-be adopt a more nuanced, less hostile position on AI-generated works, one that does not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Cheers,
Refactor
Not brilliant, but would like to get there some day.