Artists vs AI: The Starter Pack Smackdown

Get ready to be mad. Or inspired. Or anxious. Or delighted. Maybe all of them?

On LinkedIn, I’m privy to plenty of debates among the advertising, media, production, and creator crowd about AI.

Can it be a useful tool?

Yes.

Can it create visuals that are a lot less impressive than what a talented artist or designer can create, while also compromising the life’s work, belief system, and even their livelihood?

Also yes. With an exclamation point and in all caps.

(YES!)

And is it okay to pronounce AI A-One?

I’ll just leave that there for now.

Last week on LinkedIn, I started seeing a trend around an Open AI prompt that generated visual bios as if they were Obvious Plant-sque action figure starter packs.

Lightly edited, because no need to call someone out for simply doing what everyone else he follows seems to be doing.

The results were interesting, for sure.

But were they inspiring?

I’d argue: Not really. At least not until artists from around the world took action.

Inspired by a #starterpackNoAI challenge from French illustrators Gaetan Gabrielle, Penelope Bagleu, and Patouret, artists began creating and sharing their own wonderfully inspired Starter Packs in protest of generative AI.

Here’s just some of what the (human-generated) prompt yielded, each one created with human hands, creative minds, and materials from markers to yarn to cut paper to mixed media.

(Note: This article is too long for email, which means you need to click through to read it on the web or in the Substack app to catch all of it.)

Patouret: @patouret

Penelope Bagieu: @penelopeb

Kelly Malka: @bykellymalka

Chris Piascik: @chrispiascik

Haley Weaver: @haleydrewthis

Alexandre Noyer: @alexandrenoyerart

Elise Enjalbert : @eliseenjalbert

Daniela Bravo : @danbravo.tattoo

Camille : @1000et1etoiles

Judit Zengővári : @juditzengovari

Charlotte Molas: @charlottemolas

Laure Farion: @papierpapierpapier

Kristen De Palma : @kdpletters

Isabelle Milloz | @atelier_isa_m

Enikő Katalin Eged : @nikoenikoeniko

Léna Piroux: @lenapiroux

Aren’t they wonderful? I am filled with inspiration seeing all the ways artists have interpreted the assignment.

It fills me with so many ideas in a way that 5,000 people copying the same AI prompt to generate derivative “art” never will.

Plus, I now have so many fun new Instagram follows. Not to mention artists on my “To Hire One Day” list. (Maybe you are in a position to hire them too?)

So, am I anti-AI?

Not entirely. (Though admittedly many aspects scare the crap out of me.)

Here’s a way for me to try to explain my concerns as a writer and creative director.

I am not a diet cola fan. If you are, try to think back to the first time you drank a beverage made with artificial sweetener. Or maybe you accidentally put Sweet N Low in your coffee instead of sugar.

It was kind of terrible, right? You’re probably like, who would even drink this willingly?

Then you tried it again. And again.

Little by little, you began to think maybe it’s only mostly terrible. A small price to pay for the benefits of a sugar-free, low-calorie treat.

Soon, that once-terrible diet cola started to taste tolerable. Decent even. Until one day, when you decide you actually prefer it. It might even be… better?

You got used to it.

At that point, it becomes kind of hard remember that once upon a time, you strongly believed that assaulting your tastebuds with a combination of saccharin, dextrose, cream of tartar, and calcium silicate was pretty nasty.

With artificial sweeteners, we lost our taste.

I’m scared that with Artificial Intelligence, we will lose our taste for art.

For beauty.

For creativity and original thinking.

I’m still exploring the best of what AI can do ethically, and finding ways that evolving tools can help me be more productive and focus on the creative tasks that matter to me, without outsourcing my entire brain.

Let’s not lose our taste in favor of expediency.

Let’s not devalue originality, effort, heart, artistry.

Let’s not lose our ability to distinguish what is exceptional from what gets the job done.

Let’s not abandon artists.

And writers: Let’s not abandon our own thinking.

Case in point: Grammarly below, doggedly trying to change my own words — the ones you read just a few paragraphs above this one.

If I had wanted to write “Diet Coke,” I assure you I would have made that choice on my own.

Featured image: Léna Piroux. I just love it.

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