On Monday, Jason Allen came in first with his AI-generated work "Théâtre D'opéra Spatial" in the digital category at the Colorado State Fair's fine art competition.
"We're watching the death of artistry unfold right before our eyes — if creative jobs aren't safe from machines, then even high-skilled jobs are in danger of becoming obsolete. What will we have then?"
- OmniMorpho, Twitter
However, Allen did not paint "Théâtre D'opéra Spatial," an AI software called Midjourney did, following Allen's instructions.
AI-generated art is a growing concern among artists, and on Twitter working artists accused Allen of speeding up the death of the creative jobs.
Allen said his critics are judging the art by the method of its creation, and believes that eventually this type of art will be recognize as its own category.
"What if we looked at it from the other extreme, what if an artist made a wildly difficult and complicated series of restraints in order to create a piece, say, they made their art while hanging upside-down and being whipped while painting. Should this artist's work be evaluated differently than another artist that created the same piece 'normally'? I know what will become of this in the end, they are simply going to create an 'artificial intelligence art' category I imagine for things like this."
- Jason Allen
