Mashable: Lensa AI, Dream, Wonder and more such apps are changing the way we perceive ourselves and the world.

Artificial intelligence (AI) generated images are trending worldwide. Whether it is a self-portrait for Instagram, a recreation of favourite characters from books, artworks, or raising famous personalities from the dead, AI has gained traction over the past few years. While one can understand the fascination with new technology, one can’t overlook the adversities it brings along with it.

For instance, while scrolling through Twitter, I stumbled upon a post on the ‘out of context House of the Dragon’ (@oochotd) page, where the series protagonists were rendered into anime characters through AI. Similarly, Reddit threads also share images created from text prompts, which are chillingly accurate to the data. While this is a harmless activity, it threatens many artists.

turning House of the Dragon characters into anime through AI —— a thread pic.twitter.com/hYxYCGxHhu

— out of context house of the dragon (@oochotd) December 4, 2022
These #AI portraits are cool, but are they ethical? A thread:

AI-generated art is an amazing way to make creative self-portraits more accessible, but it’s crucial that we ask ourselves how these artistic renditions were generated… pic.twitter.com/wj4WuHcTO1

— Steph Frosch (@ElloSteph) December 4, 2022
The foremost is that it robs them of an opportunity to showcase their talent, while the second, the images will have a uniform tone and aesthetic. Adding fuel to the fire is AI taking inspiration from several thousand artworks and photographs available on the internet, leading to credit and copyright concerns.

Ok, now I’ll post the extremely vain ai-generated photos. It’s what we all did this for anyway, right? pic.twitter.com/Hc99K9b4rc

— Damien Haas-lloween Fire Emblem: Three Hopes (@DamienHaas) December 2, 2022
my instagram feed used to be overflowing with the most inspiring art by the most inspiring artists and now I have to scroll past at least three AI-generated images to see anything that was crafted by an actual human being… feels bad, bro. pic.twitter.com/Dkgo6gM6fG

— Sarah McGonagall (@gothspiderbitch) December 5, 2022
When Hollie Mengert, a Disney illustrator, discovered that her style was imitated during an AI experiment, enabling the machine to reproduce her style within a few hours, she was furious. “For me, personally, it feels like someone’s taking work that I’ve done, you know, things that I’ve learned — I’ve been a working artist since I graduated art school in 2011 — and is using it to create art that that [sic] I didn’t consent to and didn’t give permission for,” she told The Verge.

Moreover, the minimal period, where artworks are created within mere minutes, will push artists on the brink of unemployment. The process, in some ways, has begun already. In 2018, Christie’s, an auction company, sold an AI-generated painting for USD 432,500. The artwork, titled Portrait of Edmond de Belamy, was ‘painted’ by Obvious, a Paris-based art collective, after the AI analysed about 15,000 portraits, reports The Swaddle. As a result, the artwork in question reminds me of Rembrandt’s works, despite being far more impressionist in nature.

Can't really talk about people paying for Twitter if you paid for an AI-generated selfie

*runs*

— FJ (@FeministaJones) December 5, 2022
Alright, a brother of mine was kind of enough to explain to me about Ai Generated pictures, so if you have Ai-generated PFPS or post, take them down; this takes away from Artist in the space. If you didn't know, I hope you do now. Artist work so much harder than most.

— Uhmaayyze (@uhmaayyze) November 29, 2022
Speaking to Wired about such murky waters, Matthew Butterick, a designer, programmer, and lawyer, says, “This whole arc that we're seeing right now—this generative AI space—what does it mean for these new products to be sucking up the work of these creators?”

In addition to these rising concerns, AI-generated portraits lead to Eurocentric beauty norms while reinforcing body dysmorphia. For instance, man portraits have aesthetic features and promote the idea of white supremacy. Whether it is an image of a real individual or a character, the skin tone either lacks melanin or produces lighter, honey-coloured skin tones. Similarly, AI alters one’s face and body, to the point that they are unrecognisable.

I don't want to undersell the danger of AI-generated images to freelancers' income, but I do note that the evangelists of this tech would be, without exception, the absolute worst, most soul-draining clients any illustrator could ever have, and we're better off without them.

— Zander Cannon  (@zander_cannon) December 5, 2022
Stop giving 10-30 headshots to random websites so they can make AI-generated paintings for you. If they can create paintings for you, they can also use your headshots to create ANYTHING else. Be creative when imagining what 'ANYTHING' is.

— khurrum (@garg) December 3, 2022
Interestingly, research notes that humans find it quite hard to distinguish between real and AI-generated faces. As a result, LinkedIn saw a rise of about 1000 deepfake profiles, helping companies to cut costs for sales and marketing, reported The Swaddle. Those who have been on the internet long enough will realise that deepfakes are used for everything from propaganda to spewing hate against minorities and other infamous activities.

i have to hand to the writer's room of reality: "an increasingly cannibalistic popular culture turns to AI-generated art that can only iterate on what already exists" is a legit brilliant plot turn.

— Zack Handlen (@zhandlen) December 5, 2022
lensa’s ai-generated art is cool in theory but i’m having a hard time grappling whether the stable diffusion model that the app is built on is ethical.

the laion database contains medical photos, intimate content, and artist’s work often without consent.

anyone have thoughts? pic.twitter.com/DyeTwlnlJP

— Caitlin Ner (@caitlinner) December 6, 2022
Just discovered a new one right after exiting scrolling through this thread for too long! “Being against AI-generated art is ableist, actually” pic.twitter.com/fo8WZ41fKv

— k (@dontd3leteme) December 6, 2022
AI has abundant issues, and we are far from enabling a concrete method or law to curb them. This concern was also voiced by Europol, an European law enforcement group: “Auditory and visual recordings of an event are often treated as a truthful account of an event. But what if these media can be generated artificially, adapted to show events that never took place, to misrepresent events, or to distort the truth?”

As we are heading to an era where fake is ‘real’, it is increasingly becoming arduous to tread these dangerous waters. We are unsure to what extent our online world will dilapidate, but the process of its undoing is already here.