AI is everywhere now. It writes poems, creates images, brainstorms stories, colours photos, and offers prompts faster than we can open a sketchbook. It’s efficient, fascinating—and for many creatives, utterly terrifying. We hear the questions almost daily now: Is it real art? Is it ethical? Am I still an artist if I use AI?
Let’s take a breath.
AI in art isn’t inherently wrong or right. It’s not a hero or a villain. Like all tools, it depends on how, why, and where we use it. AI is not replacing artists. But it is reshaping the way we create—and we get to choose how we respond.
🎨 When AI Supports, Not Replaces
At its best, AI serves as a support to your vision—not a substitute. Artists have always used tools to accelerate, experiment, and evolve. The leap from brush to Photoshop didn’t end painting. Photography didn’t kill portraiture. And AI isn’t ending creativity.
You might use AI to:
Plan composition before sketching or painting
Test colour palettes for a series
Refine reference photos for your artwork
Generate ideas when you feel stuck
Shape backdrops or characters for your stories
Create design elements you then adjust by hand
Practice prompt-driven creativity with boundaries (e.g. “3-Colour AI Challenge”)
In these cases, AI isn’t “cheating.” It’s no different from using tracing paper, a stock image, or an art mannequin app. The choice still belongs to the artist. The editing, curation, and direction are still yours. AI didn’t imagine your story. It responded to your input.
⚠️ When to Be Cautious
Problems arise when AI is used to deceive, mass-produce, or mimic others’ work without respect or transparency. AI trained on stolen images without artist consent (as with some large datasets) raises significant ethical concerns.
It also becomes murky when:
The creator claims 100% authorship of an AI image
AI-generated works mimic specific styles without credit or permission
Artists use AI-generated submissions to enter traditional contests or galleries
No creative or editorial input is applied—just “click and post”
Art doesn’t have to be hard to be valid. But it does have to involve intention. Mass-producing AI images without any personal engagement is not the same as creating art. It’s content, not craftsmanship.
🛠 Recommended AI Tools (With Purpose)
If you’re curious but cautious, here are some tools that work with creatives, not instead of them:
ChatGPT – For idea generation, writing prompts, planning narratives, drafting bios or artist statements.
Midjourney / Leonardo.ai – Ideal for concept sketching, visual exploration, and thematic mood boards.
Canva AI Tools – Background removal, image suggestions, and text-to-image elements for layouts.
Adobe Firefly – Integrated into Photoshop and Illustrator, great for content-aware fills, text effects, and visual expansion.
Runway ML – Useful for video creators or photographers experimenting with effects and motion.
Artbreeder – Combines genetics-style sliders to create human faces or character ideas, often used by writers and illustrators.
🤔 But Is It Still Art?
That’s the heart of it, isn’t it?
The truth is, AI can create images—but it doesn’t create meaning. It doesn’t know grief, joy, rage, longing, obsession. It doesn’t wrestle with a blank page or cry over a failed layer. You do.
Art is not pixels. Art is intent. If you’re using AI to amplify your message, not replace your voice, then yes—what you’re doing is art.
But we need honesty. If a piece is heavily AI-assisted, say so. If AI provided a shortcut, be transparent. The real damage comes when we pretend that all tools are invisible, when we present output as pure authorship. Audiences—and other artists—deserve the truth.
💬 A Creative Choice, Not a Moral War
It’s okay to use AI. It’s also okay not to. You don’t have to pick a side. Many traditional artists will never touch it—and that’s valid. Others will integrate it into sketching, writing, layout, and production—and that’s valid too. We don’t all have to make the same kind of art to be in the same creative world.
Let’s stop pretending AI is either the future or the end. It’s a new brush. A strange, glitchy, powerful brush. And in the hands of a human being who thinks, edits, reflects, and refines—it can absolutely be part of the process.
The real question isn’t “Can I use AI?”
It’s: “Is this helping me make something honest, meaningful, and mine?”
