AI Generated Art Can Do A Lot But Can It Replace Human Art?

Generative AI has reached unprecedented heights in the last few years. Aside from OpenAI’s ChatGPT which amassed over a million users within 5 days, the company has another AI product that was popular with people.

What we’re talking about is OpenAI’s DALL-E, which garnered the attention of the art and design world for its ability to create images of anything, based solely on text prompts.

Speaking to MIT Technology Review on the testing and success of the tool, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “Almost always, we build something and then we all have to use it for a while. We try to figure out what it’s going to be, what it’s going to be used for,” and they believed they found it, with Altman adding, “It was very clear that this was it—this was the product. There was no debate. We never even had a meeting about it.”

“This is the first AI technology that has caught fire with regular people,” says Altman.

Currently, there are a number of generative AI tools engaged in art creation, including DALL-E, Adobe, Microsoft, Canva, Midjourney, Lensa, Stable Diffusion and even Google announced two text-to-image models of its own, Imagen and Parti.


Although generative AI can quickly produce images on a large scale, many experts agree it couldn’t replace human art, as it can’t match the unique emotional and personal touch that an artist exudes.

According to Maria Teresa Llano, a computational creativity researcher at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, believes text-to-image models aren’t creative, as upon extended usage, the results become repetitive, which happens because the models rely on already existent images and most likely always will.

Dr. Mike Cook, an AI researcher at King’s College London and computational creativity researcher, believes as AI generated images continue to be produced, we’re simultaneously building a base for its future. “The internet is now forever contaminated with images made by AI. The images that we made in 2022 will be a part of any model that is made from now on,” he said.


The use of technology to produce art is not new. In the 1800s, oil/water paint artists felt the new tech of cameras and printed images weren’t original. Eventually, it led to a higher appreciation of handmade paintings. In modern times, music artists use electronic sounds and autotune but nothing beats the charm of an acoustic performance.

In essence, a vital question is; will people be able to tell the difference between AI-generated work and human-made work – and more importantly, will people really care? As per a 2017 Rutgers study, most participants couldn't select between the two. This trend was also noticed when an AI artwork won a prize for emerging artists – which led to much criticism.

What do you think of the use of AI generated images in mainstream media and art competitions? Let us know in the comments below!