Anonymous User asked: Where do you see the future of online art in five years?
Assuming by "online art" that you mean the like, commission/freelance scene specifically in the sphere I move in, much the same as it is now with some numbers shuffled around - we've already kind of adjusted to there being an additional layer of "cruft"/sediment from AI-gen imagery accumulating on the body of work produced online, and if we're not talking about companies specifically but private individuals, the primary patrons and clients who commission private works aren't moving over to AI gen, I don't think.
The kind of person who looks at AI-gen bullshit and decides to use that instead of commissioning someone is, imo, (although maybe this is naive of me) the person who was already either violently undercharging and overdemanding OR just lifting existing work altogether, they're not a hypothetical source of patronage who has only just now decided that they can get what they want from gen images.
That's not to say that I don't see this having damaged "entry level" spheres severely or that there won't be any impact, but culturally speaking we already settled into an understanding that AI work is cheap and degrading and speaks to a lack of care, money, taste or all three - it's an inverse status symbol, and while that's a very cynical way of looking at it, I think that kind of social stigma being established quickly, that people feel the need to hide that they're using AI stuff unless they're hopelessly embarassing cultists is a positive development.
On a more like, personal level, I think that the value of building relationships with repeat clients, the mutual understanding, the way you develop characters together, establishing a rapport on a sliding scale from "Professional" to even becoming sincerely held friendship - I think this is a big part of working with freelancers in the private art sphere that's highly unlikely to erode in the face of AI. Idk, i'm an optimist. I think, as ever, there will be a lot of garbage, but the people who work with freelancers won't have their needs on multiple levels met by that garbage, and will continue to seek out actual artists without much change in their habits. One thing we should definitely prepare for is the difficulty this is going to impose on people in the opening period of their careers, who don't have established networks or existing repeat clients - doing our best to connect new artists to learning resources, opportunities and community that values them will be more important than ever.
Again, this is SPECIFICALLY only with respect to the private freelance sphere -corporate/studios are an entirely different beast and imo face a much more severe situation potentially.