Do you know AI? It's quite a new concept where you can create an image by just entering text. You can enter something like "Cat wearing a helmet and riding a tank" into the algorithm, and it will generate an image in about a minute. The nuts and bolts behind the technology basically search a database of similar images according to your instructions and stitch them together with various enhancements, and frankly, the results are stunning. Absolutely stunning!
It's the wild west right now, and as with NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and Beanie Babies, there's huge potential and possibly huge risk. Because AI technology relies on using existing images, even though the final product has nothing to link to the original, there are already lawsuits from photographers and artists who don't want their copyrighted work used to artificially creating new images.
Stock photography used to be a fairly lucrative venture, but it's becoming impossible to make any real money for a single contributor. Between all agencies, tens of millions of images are uploaded each month, making it virtually impossible for a buyer to find your images. Uploading just 100 images per month and comparing that to over 10 million images uploaded by everyone else in the same month is a lot of work. You can be the best photographer on the planet, but you can still drown in an ever-growing sea.
With artificial intelligence, you only need a computer and no skills as an artist or creator. You don't need a camera, brush, paint or pen. Just enter the desired image and POOF, your image is created and is professional and ready for commercial use. If you've experimented with artificial intelligence, you'll find that the images were generated by competing top performers.
With AI, you can generate thousands of images in a single month. It won't be long before the potential is realized and there will be a mad rush to generate huge portfolios in a short period of time. The patient photographer and artist can be pushed right out of the industry as a result.
However, not all is gloom and doom. Artificial intelligence largely creates images with an artistic look and feel. You can tell the algorithm to make the image highly detailed and photorealistic, but the result doesn't look like a photograph. At least not for now. AI images are also currently rendered with a smaller pixel size. The popular AI engine is Midjourney and their maximum image is 2048 x 2048 pixels. You can increase it with a magnifying app, but doubling an image is still a relatively small image in the commercial world.
The good news for photographers is that artificial intelligence is far from creating conference rooms full of salespeople. If you can focus on generating stock images that can't be done with AI, then the onslaught of images coming in will have little impact on your portfolio. Illustrators and fantasy art creators may be hit hard by this new technology.
Another problem with AI is that they are difficult to use. Of the several services available, Midjourney is the only one that doesn't require too much effort to get started. Alkaid.art has a free Photoshop plugin, and I haven't figured out how to install it yet. I'll try again when I have more time. Others I've seen have little to no documentation, or you have to pay to use the software without being able to use a trial version to see how it works.
It's only a matter of time before AI services become more user-friendly. Difficulty using apps is actually a good thing, as it can deter many from starting. Look at it this way, if you jump into AI now, generate 10,000 images in a few months, then you'll be one step ahead. Midjourney costs almost $600 for an annual subscription to the professional level of services. You might have to eat, sleep and breathe AI to create 10,000 images, but you can see how it makes good business sense. The only unpredictable variable is what kind of income these images will generate for you. But compare that to buying a $600 camera, the software, and then spending all your time shooting to upload 50 images each month. And you're still not guaranteed to generate any sales.
Then there's the catch where AI becomes so prevalent that buyers will just go and create their own images for whatever project they're working on. Then nobody makes money. Good for the buyer, bad for the creator.
Bottom line: Stock photography was an opportunity for amateurs to get started with professional photography. With the industry saturated with images as it is and technology making it easier and faster to create commercial artwork, you need to quickly become a good photographer or artist. Subpar contributors won't have the occasional sale to keep them motivated. Even for experienced photographers and graphic designers, only the best of the best will stand out in the sea of hundreds of millions of images to choose from. Throw in AI and it gets a lot harder.
Or will AI become the next Beanie Baby or cryptocurrency?
AI is the new gold rush. Those who get in now and make good pictures will make money, but even they will see sales and profits drop over time. Just take the money and run. Over time, AI will become more user-friendly, able to generate larger-sized images, be able to be more photorealistic, and cut a wide path through the traditional mediums of photography and artwork. Making money in the art world will require a new strategy, and those who figure it out will earn a very good income. That's what scares me, can I figure out how to rise with the coming changes?
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