Understanding artists' perspectives on generative AI art and transparency, ownership, and fairness

Generative AI is rapidly transforming the art world, creating significant tensions not only between artists and model creators but also among artists. These tools are capable of producing almost instantaneous art-like outputs on an unprecedented scale, which is changing the means of production not only for many artists but also for consumers of creative outputs. While some celebrate Generative AI for its potential to enhance their processes and democratize creativity, making artistic expression accessible to more people, others criticize its ethical implications. This tension highlights the interplay between technological innovation and the rights of creators in this complex socio-technical system. A major concern in this context is the exploitation of artists, whose original works are often used as training data without proper credit or compensation and who now have to compete with Generative AI art models that are hyper-efficient, inexpensive digital twins of their past selves.