I've been so happy to see folks fight back against AI-generated art, like this top-notch trolling by Nashville-based comedian Ben Palmer, where he tricks people into thinking they're getting AI-generated art when he's actually on the other end of the chat drawing simple—and hilarious—images on his computer.
Sadly, even though increasing numbers of people are expressing concern about AI-generated art amid rising evidence that it's terrible for the environment, there's no shortage of seemingly never-ending AI-generated art trends—including the latest "starter pack" trend that's been making its rounds on social media.
BBC explains the trend:
Since the start of April, thousands of people have uploaded their photos to generate images of themselves as dolls, despite warnings of damaging the environment, giving away personal information, and devaluing creativity.
I'm absolutely thrilled to see artists who are sick of AI fighting back. Again, BBC:
The feeling has been shared by other creatives with the rise of the #StarterPackNoAI movement, which has been used thousands of times since first appearing on Instagram in early April before spreading to X soon after.
Some of the best examples from the #StarterPackNoAI movement are from children's book illustrators, and have been posted in various groups devoted to the art of illustration on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. I just love seeing all of the cool and creative "starter packs" that have actually been created by real artists—I've posted one of my favorites as the cover photo for this article. It was drawn by Gillian Tamayo, an artist who lives in Quezon City, Philippines. When she posted it, she provided the following information, which shows how much time and devotion goes into actual art:
Here's my #starterpacknoai.
This is 100% human-made. It took 3,593 strokes, and 3 hours and 50 mins tracked time to make.
Let's keep supporting art with a soul. Join the resistance.
ig: @littledoodlesbylili
fb: Little Doodles by Lili
#saynotoai #notoaiart #notoai
I encourage folks to, as Tamayo wrote, "join the resistance" and stop using AI-generated art!
If you want to see more cool art, search social media with #starterpacknoai. And if you want to read more about the negative environmental impacts of AI, here's a terrific article entitled, "The Climate and Sustainability Implications of Generative AI," published by MIT researchers, and a great (and shorter) overview of their findings.
