I generally consider "OC" to mean specifically that it's original - you didn't get it from someplace else, so broadly yes if you're the one who had it generated.
But if it's a community for art or photography generally, I don't think AI art belongs there - the skills and talent required are just too different. I love AI art communities, I just think it's a separate thing.
Is it original? That depends on the context. What do you ask about, in what context? Where is it placed? Which AI? How was it trained? How does it replicate?
If someone generates an image, it is original in that narrow context - between them and the AI.
Is the AI producing originals, original interpretations, original replications, or only transforming other content? I don't think you can make a general statement on that. It's too broad, unspecific of a question.
There is a book "steal like an artist" by Austin Kleon that addresses this idea. Real short read and interesting visuals.
As for AI specifically.
Ai image generation tools are just that, a tool. Using them doesn't immediately discredit your work. There is a skillset in getting them to produce your vision. And that vision is the human element not present in the tool alone.
I personally don't think terribly highly of ai art, but the idea that it's "just stealing real artists hard work" is absurd. It makes art accessable to people intimidated by other mediums, chill out and let people make shit.
The way you put original content in quotes is weird.
OC as an acronym typically just means something that someone made. In this sense, yeah, if you make something with AI then it's "your OC'.
Original content used as the words generally means something slightly different and it's more debatable.
Having used AI art tools there is more creativity involved than people think. When you're just generating them, sure, there's less creativity than traditional digital art, of course, but it is not a wholly uncreative process. Take in-painting, you can selectively generate in just some portions of the image. Or sketch and then generate based off of that.
All that said though I don't think "creativity" is necessary for something to be considered OC. It just needs to have been made by them.
Would you call fan art of well known characters OC? I would.
Steam bans games that contain such AI content because they are not near OC. Except you train the AI on only your own Copyrighted Images, which mid journey and various other AI aren't. They are all trained on copyrighted images without asking.
It's an interesting thing to ponder and my opinion is that like many other things in life something being 'OC' is a spectrum rather than a binary thing.
If I apply a B&W filter on an image is that OC? Obviously not
But what if I make an artwork that's formed by hundreds of smaller artworks, like this example? This definitely deserves the OC tag
AI art is also somewhere in that spectrum and even then it changes depending on how AI was used to make the art. Each person has a different line on the spectrum where things transition from non OC to OC, so the answer to this would be different for everyone.
As someone who has been trying to get my vision for a piece to fruition using AI for months…I absolutely think AI is OC. The argument that it references existing work cracks me up because all of art history is derivatives of what has come before. I do think there is “low effort” pieces, but you get that in other mediums as well such as photography. Also…need I mention Duchamp and the urinal?
That's an interesting question. I haven't spent very much time thinking about how to define AI art. My immediate thought is that AI art can be OC, but it should also be labeled as such. It's important to know if a person created the content vs prompting an AI to generate the content. The closest example I can think of is asking someone to paint something for you instead of painting it yourself.
Yeah, I do. I play with AI from time to time and people don't realize creating the correct prompts is a skill in itself, it's not just some magical doodad that does what you want out of the box. AI generated stuff is OC if you're the one who made it.
Yea, the AI is a tool used by humans to make art. Like other artistic tools, you can use it in a low effort way to make stuff (like the abstract and ultra random modern art). Similarly, people can use it in a much more directed and creative way, such as by using ControlNet to determine the content of the art manually, then have the AI follow whatever style directed.
There are many ways to use AI art in a more involved way than just prompting and hoping for the best. Still, like the other artistic tools that have been invented, people want to gatekeep and call it not art. Don't listen to them, art is art regardless of how you perceive it. You may not think it as worthwhile, but it is still created only for aesthetic value and is thus art
Sure. It’s art just like many digital tool assisted products came before it. Is it always difficult art to make ? No but who cares. It’s OC as long as the source of this AI art is the person posting.
It can be. There’s a lot of human controlled variables involved. ai is a medium for art and can generate stuff never before possible on this planet. Of course that depends on how it’s used. If you train a mode to copy an artist that’s obviously no bueno. If you train a model to generate nightmare fuel that can create videos from detailed prompts then go ahead
I think so, there's still a lot of creativity that goes into designing the prompts from what I've seen. AI is just another tool for artists to use and I think it could honestly be considered it's own medium, like oil painting or wood burning. But I do also understand the hesitation people feel around AI art and calling it OC.
AI is trained by analyzing artists' work and then instructed to replicate art in a particular style, therefore, from the beginning of the process it wouldn't be original.
If an AI could create art without being fed galleries of images first and develop its own style that might be considered original.
It's new, but not original. With the recent influx of AI content that doesn't seem to be slowing down, I'd say we should make a new designation of GC - generated content.
If anything it's credit goes to the AI generator or the company that produced the AI generator, not the person who asked it to create something. Unless they only used it for a backbone and then adjusted and detailed it from there.
If you take the art and just trace and polish it and nobody is any the wiser, in that situation yes. At least until that is found out, in which I will refer to it as derivative work over original content. It's why I am calling some of the digital art I am working on AI derivative rather than full-on original content.
If all you do is generate an image, do no edits whatsoever, and then act like you did it, then I couldn't in good faith considering "OC" since you did nothing but type a few words and maybe click a few buttons or moved a slider 3 pixels to the left.