More than a year after it first burst into the mainstream with ChatGPT, generative AI remains a controversial technology among many artists. Look at the attention surrounding Nightshade and its ilk, a tool designed to help artists resist AI companies that scrape and train images and videos. About the work of generational models.
But that hasn’t stopped some of the biggest names in pop culture from embracing AI technology. Just this week, the new showrunner and writer, true detective night landthe latest in HBO’s creepy murder mystery anthology series, and artist Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, have released new material that takes advantage of burgeoning technology.
“True Detective”: AI mystery?
in the case of true detective night landthe new season is directed by Mexican director Issa López, and eagle-eyed viewers will notice a low-quality AI-generated poster on a character’s bedroom wall in the second episode on Sunday, January 21st. I noticed that there are scenes that look like this.
Each poster depicts a girl group and a rock band. Apparently AI-generated if you pay close attention, the latter poster has the heading “Metal US Tour”, a generic term for metal bands I’ve heard of, and a weird chunky “A” in the logo. Contains. That doesn’t seem very intentional.
Additionally, viewers zoomed in on the tagline at the bottom of the poster, which included the text “2st LIVE.” It’s a cheerful amalgamation of “1st” and “2nd” and tends to make it consistent with the kind of error-generating AI art tools that are.
I was watching this season as well. true detective (And I enjoy it.) And to be honest, I wouldn’t have noticed the incongruity of these posters if it hadn’t been pointed out to me with a critical eye on X (the social network formerly known as Twitter) Probably. But once you see it, it’s hard to miss and gives the scene and production a cheap feel.
That being said, this scene wasn’t all that important or dramatic for the episode. Also, the character in the room where the poster was posted wasn’t one of the main characters, or even a supporting character, at least for now. They seemed to be there primarily to advance the plot.
Still, some viewers found the set decorations jarring and off-putting, especially considering the show was a huge hit with a fan base that dissects every detail to unravel the mysteries of the plot. felt.
Showrunner Lopez puts her in the position of , tried to defend.
Instead, she said the poster was intended to look “sad” and emphasize the show’s remote, desolate landscape of the rural Arctic.
In that sense, the posting of these AI posters can be read as a critique of technology. Later, she told another viewer of
But Lopez also reshared a fan-generated AI-generated image of the show’s fictional “TSAILAL Arctic Research Station” vehicle and tweaked it to make it “TSAILAL.”
Regardless of whether Lopez or his colleagues on the series intended for this episode to include an AI-generated poster, criticizing technology by including an AI-generated poster in this episode is simply using it. Rather than re-sharing fan-generated AI-generated images, this Hollywood creator has no objection to using them to make a point.
And at the end of the day, even in the face of groundbreaking contractual agreements between screenwriters, actors, and studios, the more people use and are exposed to AI, the more accepted the technology will become. It will be accepted. The year that gave the former two groups the power to control how AI is used in film and television.
Ye and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures trailer appears to be made with AI video generation technology
Unless you’ve been blissfully unaware of the pop culture tumult of the past few years, you know that Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, has probably never had a worse reputation than he does now.
Many articles have been written about him anti-semitic comments and Offensive remarks about slaverythe former to him Multi-billion dollar shoe deal with AdidasNeedless to say about him Citizens struggling with mental health and his High-profile divorce from fellow celebrity Kim Kardashian, the mother of his children. His support for then-President Donald Trump offended some fans and even colleagues such as rapper Jay-Z.
All of that has cast a shadow over his music in recent years – and it, too, seems to have suffered in the popular realm, at least on his last few albums. It sold worse than his previous blockbusters..
So Ye’s next album has a lot going for it. vulturea collaboration with rapper Ty Dolla $ign, is scheduled for release in early February 2024, with subsequent volumes scheduled for release in March and April.
But Ye is no stranger to controversy throughout his career. In fact, he was into controversy from a young age (who could forget him?) Publicly accuse and sabotage Taylor Swift During his acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, or his 2005 admonition to then-President George W. Bush on live television.In response to Hurricane Katrina? )
So it’s probably no surprise to see him using AI to promote his new work. vulture Album with Ty Dolla $ign: Both rappers posted an audiovisual “trailer” of their collaboration on their Instagram accounts on Tuesday, crediting Canadian visual artist Jon Rahman.
The trailer, embedded just below this paragraph and set to the album’s title song, is an eerie mashup of leather bondage and gimp imagery, burning structures, owls, wolves, clowns, and dark silhouettes, all in the They are warped, bleeding, and deformed from each other. His surreal style is shared with other early AI video artists who post their work on forums such as. r/aivideo subreddit (Full disclosure, so am I) I posted my work there).
This is very much in line with Rahman’s previous work, which focuses on disturbing images found within online platforms. google street view car And about him touring the virtual online world second life As Kool-Aid Man.
Rahman was recently interviewed dirt bag left-Turned-New Right darling Dasha Nekrasova of red hunting podcast interview magazineIn it, he says that AI has “completely changed the way I make art on so many levels… AI in art focuses on the end product rather than the process of getting there.” He said that he believes that “AI is becoming a reality,” and likened AI to the industrial revolution. The relevant sections of that article are:
Nekrasova: You are very young in spirit. How do you feel about the impact of AI in your art? As you said, I think it’s accelerating the collapse of consensus reality, and I feel optimistic about that.
Rahman: However, AI art is particularly polarizing among artists. 99.9% of his AI art is crap, but that’s probably true of all art produced. I don’t buy into the idea that handmade pieces that have taken a long time to make are more “authentic” and more valuable. AI art is experiencing the same thing that happened to film and photography. Initially, they were not considered a true art form, but merely a novelty. I think of AI as an artistic tool, like a camera. This completely changed the way I make art on many levels, eliminating a lot of time-consuming menial tasks and giving me more time to focus on what’s important, like the actual story I want to tell. Why avoid it? Pierre-Auguste Renoir said, “Photography freed painting from many burdensome chores, including portraits of his family.” AI does the same thing. It can handle mundane and repetitive tasks, ideally freeing us up to focus on more meaningful tasks. Just as Kafka’s writings show how this kind of task crushes human potential, AI in art focuses on the final product rather than how to get there. I’m guessing. And I think it forces artists to more precisely define what art is, and it challenges a lot of preconceptions about what creative expression is.
NEKRASOVA: I have an innate hostility and fear towards AI that is fundamentally irrational.
Rahman: I don’t think that’s unreasonable. AI is scary. Algorithms can deeply manipulate our behavior and often understand our patterns better than we do.
NEKRASOVA: I think the cold, hard truth, the thing that’s going to be very uncomfortable for people, is that AI will replace people. If you can already write like an AI, you may not need to.
Rahman: Yes.
NEKRASOVA: What AI can’t really do is improvise. AI cannot be truly creative because it does not have a subconscious mind. Creativity ultimately comes from human drive, and it will be the last thing that separates us from machines.
Rahman: The Luddites tried to stop the Industrial Revolution by destroying machines, but to no avail. For better or worse, technological advances are inevitable. I don’t think we can stop the AI revolution. We can only adapt to the AI revolution.
So far, initial fan reactions to the “Vultures” trailer seem to be mostly positive. Maybe the rest of Leaf’s fan base isn’t actually against his use of divisive new technology. Or, perhaps, his previous controversies have clouded and tarnished his reputation so much that those still following him tend to look past this time in comparison to his previous criminal acts. It may be there.
But Rahman, you and your creator, true detective night landThey’re not the only big-name artists deploying AI for new projects.
After all, you are a disciple and a rapper Nicki Minaj had fun with fans at X Earlier this month, some of the artwork promoting her latest album Pink Friday 2 appeared to have been generated by an AI tool, resulting in glitches such as an extra finger on a human hand. They noticed that.
In my mind the real leader in all this is secret invasion, a poorly reviewed Marvel TV series that debuted in the summer of 2023, but was heavily criticized by some at X for using the AI art generator Midjourney to create the opening sequence’s title card image. At the time, the creators defended it, saying that the AI art and the resulting strangeness and deformities were designed to express the otherworldly nature of the alien Skrull invader characters portrayed in the series.
The show has since been largely forgotten, as has the controversy over the opening tiles, but it’s clear that some viewers still resist the prominent use of AI in mainstream entertainment.
But as the quality of AI image and video generation devices improves, it can become increasingly difficult for even discerning viewers to detect. Would they object very strongly if it was later revealed that AI was used in some scenes of their popular or beloved entertainment?
Even more remarkable, in my opinion, is the fact that a growing number of artists and creators are increasingly coming forward and embracing AI on a larger stage, despite the vocal opposition of their colleagues. . Legendary figures in various fields.
Given Rahman’s points quoted above, I can’t help but believe that the train has left the proverbial station. Generative AI is becoming more accessible to people and continues to improve. As long as these two facts remain true, I don’t think their use in popular entertainment will slow down anytime soon. Especially if the Giants are using it.
Artists and the companies that support them would do well to keep this trend in mind as they plan their future work and prepare for mixed reactions from audiences to the use of AI itself.
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