How Christoph Niemann Uses AI in His Work

This is a thoughtful piece from artist & illustrator Christoph Niemann about how he’s come to use AI (tactically, sparingly) in his work: Sketched Out: An Illustrator Confronts His Fears About A.I. Art.

Creating art is a nonlinear process. I start with a rough goal. But then I head into dead ends and get lost or stuck. The secret to my process is to be on high alert in this deep jungle for unexpected twists and turns, because this is where a new idea is born. I can’t make art when I’m excluded from the most crucial moments.

But also:

When I first learned about computer tools in art school, I was elated. All of a sudden I was able to set type, draw animations, create clean vector graphics. Since then, I’ve experimented with every new digital tool available. Despite my wariness of AI, I’ve found some good uses for it.

Something as seemingly simple as “Fill a 10x20 document with circles of random sizes between 1 and 2 inches without using a repeating pattern” would take days using traditional digital tools. Now, by using ChatGPT to code a script, I can have different versions in minutes.

(thx, andy)

Tags: art · artificial intelligence · Christoph Niemann