A school’s senior high school program earned flak for reportedly launching an “AI-Generated Art Contest” that opened discussions about using artificial intelligence (AI) to create artwork.
A Pinoy pop culture-oriented Facebook page posted a screengrab taken from the page of the Golden Faith Academy‘s Senior High School (SHS), which encouraged students to use AI in making artwork.
“Calling all visionaries! We’re proud to launch the AI-Generated Art Contest — where imagination meets innovation,” the school’s SHS program said.
“Theme: Reimagine What’s Possible. Because creativity isn’t confined to brushes, hands, styluses, tablets, etc. Now, prompts can be the canvas, and possibility is the brush,” it added.
The post can no longer be seen on its Facebook page, although some users have been leaving angry reactions on its other posts.
The page of the “FFTM,” also known as the “Follow The Trend Movement,” shared a screengrab of the controversial post with the caption, “sorry WHAT art.”
FFTM’s post has reached 53,000 likes and reactions, 13,000 shares and over 2,000 comments, with some Filipinos expressing distaste at the alleged contest.
“Iimagination’ HAHAHAHHA Golden Faith Academy Senior High School, using AI as a medium for a ‘Competition’ and considering AI as an ‘ART’? Pinapayagan ng pamunuan niyo ‘to?” a Facebook user said.
“Nawawalan ng sense ‘yung competition with these tools, parang sinabi niyo na rin na CHEF ‘yung mga nag-iinit ng ready-to-eat food sa microwave,” the user added.
“Ang considered tools sa art ay ruler, grids, shapes, etc. BUT NOT AI. AI is a tool PARA LANG GABAYAN ang mga aspiring artists to IMPROVE, not to use it in a completely generative AI competition na puro prompts lang ang gamit, walang creativity, imagination at vision,” the user continued.
“Imagine putting ‘AI-generated’ and ‘creativity’ together. AI can’t ‘create’ something original. It can only generate [or] spew what it’s already been fed,” another Pinoy pointed out.
“Can we not use the word ART here. Just say AI-generated image contest. Best prompt award!!” exclaimed a different user.
“Nowadays: [cross emoji] think outside the box [check emoji] prompt inside the box,” commented another Pinoy.
On AI and art
An article from Forbes explained that using AI to generate art foregoes the “creative process” that artists go through to create something using their skills.
“Art can now be manifested via the touch of a button, a prompt or two, as effortless as ordering fast food. The technology is a solution to a problem that never existed,” the article said.
“Artists are watching the skills that they have spent their life sharpening being devalued before their eyes,” it added.
“Worse, their work was absorbed into the dataset without their knowledge or consent; they have been used to train their own replacement, and no one asked for permission,” the article read.
It further said that “the dead machine can only reconstruct art from tattered pieces it has already eaten,” noting that AI technology “has no perspective to speak from, no odd fixations, perversions or eccentricities that a person injects into their art.”
