Nuts & Bolts: Artificial Intelligence – Guest Post Corrie Kuipers
How do I use the images I generate in MJ? The process is pretty much as when I used to draw everything by hand. It all starts with an idea. I keep copious notes for those as well 😉 I have perfected certain prompts to get a consistent look and style that fits my brand.
Animals have always played the starring role in my work and now I can really go to town as Midjourney keeps getting more and more sophisticated. So I take my idea into Midjourney and try my prompts on it to get as close to a workable image as I can. Sometimes I can’t get exactly what I want, Midjourney still has certain limits, and then I keep working on it or leave it for the future where it might be possible. You need to have patience.
When an image has potential I save it to my hard drive. From this growing collection I select one I want to work with and take it into an app to enhance the size to make it big enough for print. Sometimes I use just one image as the main component for a card design, or it can be several. I mainly use Picmonkey to build my card (as in adding text, background and effects).
Do I feel using AI for my card designs is unethical? No. Not the way I use it. My generated images are photorealistic and not aimed to copy any living or dead artist. The whole argument of ‘you are ripping off artists because the AI is trained on their work’ is a bit too simplistic. Yes, AI used existing material to train on, but don’t forget it’s all broken down into ones and zeros. So they take minute pieces of everything and mix it into something unique by way of your prompt. You mix and remix and tinker with it until you get something nobody else can reproduce (unless they have your exact seed number, but that’s getting technical). And don’t think you can just waltz in, press a button and your design is done. It really still needs to go through that whole creative process, just like the way I used to make cards.
I love AI, and think I will ride that wave for as long as I can. There are so many new exciting things to come. It has given me and my card designs a new lease on life and I’m happy for it.”
Please remember to use GCU’s policy and instructions for submission:
https://gcucommunity.com/2023/05/05/nuts-bolts-artificial-intelligence-policy/
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
GCU Community 
As a stock photographer of almost 20 years with almost 15,000 images for sale, I cannot see myself embracing AI for my creations. I also feel ripped off by AI as the stock agency I am exclusive with sued an AI company for using over 12 million of their images without permission. I worked very hard to create my collection of images over the past two decades only to have them stolen and not sought after as much anymore, thanks to AI.
Hi Sharon,
We understand and many feel the same way across all creative media. GCU was specific to require AI generated works to show additional value add by the artist. This does not completely get away from some parts / elements of the design being AI generated but requires the submitter to have the skills to do more and create a unique composition.
This is a fast evolving technology and GCU is following along to adjust our policies accordingly.
Curious, with the stock agency you use, do you not have the option with your content offered there to opt out of submissions to AI knowledge base / models?
As far as I know, my agency is not using it’s content for AI created art at this point. Therefore, there is no opt-in/opt-out option for artist submissions. That’s not to say that couldn’t change quickly in the near future. The incident that they were suing over was based on an AI company that scraped their collection from the internet without any consent or permission.
It’s definitely a hot topic at the moment and there are extreme opinions on it. I just wanted to share my perspective of someone who creates original images (for a living) that can potentially end up in AI content whether permission was given or not.
Thank you for your reply. Perhaps a bit of pandora’s box.