Modern art can be anything these days, but can it be AI-created? University of Oregon sophomore Chad Bertman thinks so.
As students settle into the spring term and the weather gets warmer in Eugene, the Erb Memorial Union opens a new gallery, entitled “From My Fingertips.” The gallery will showcase art prompted by Bertman and artificially generated by ChatGPT. The open-source AI model just released its newest update, allowing users to generate artful images in any style based on a few descriptive words.
Bertman, a sophomore studying economics, found this update exciting and immediately started generating anything he and his friends found funny or interesting, like morphed pictures of Vice President JD Vance.
A recent online trend has emerged, where people take popular photos of celebrities or album covers and convert them into a Studio Ghibli style art piece, which inspired Bertman heavily.
However, Bertman believed he could take this idea further and get more creative with it. He had always wanted to do something worthwhile on campus, so he reached out to the EMU staff to create a gallery for his generated images. Bertman operates under the notion that anything can be modern art, so why can’t AI? “Work smarter, not harder” is his mantra.
Despite the online uproar over AI generation stealing artists’ work and harming the environment, Bertman sees AI as a way to take advantage of the art world for his own benefit.
“Hey man, these other artists spend ten hours painting while I’m playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and drinking with my buddies,” Bertman said. “It’s instant art. Who’s really winning here?”
One of the generated art pieces in the gallery is of former UO quarterback Bo Nix generated in the Rick and Morty art style. Bertman decided to include this image at the forefront of the gallery because it was his and his friends’ favorite.
Another image features football head coach Dan Lanning generated as Lieutenant Dan from the movie Forrest Gump. Bertman and his friends are big football fans, so this piece was fitting as well.
The EMU staff was concerned that most of the images Bertman submitted were comedic, so he also submitted a few serious ones. One depicts trees in a watercolor style and another has a Van Gogh-inspired depiction of The Duck.
Bertman has received intense backlash from students on campus who claim that AI art steals from creators, is soulless and harms the environment with its excessive water usage, effectively contributing to climate concerns.
When asked how he responds to these controversies, Bertman laughed and said, “The future is now. Why waste time and money on art supplies when I can just type a prompt into my phone and get something just as good out of it?”
Considering the climate change argument, Bertman does not believe in it, so it is not a concern for him.
The gallery, “From My Fingertips,” will open on April 1 in the Rosewood Gallery of the EMU. For more information, consult the EMU events calendar.
Writer’s note: This is a fictional story. I do not condone the use of AI-generated art. The use of AI-generated art in this article was to make a point of how stupid and pointless it is. Support your local artists — people like imaginary student Chad Bertman are the worst.
Disclaimer: All quotes and facts in this article are completely satirical and fake, in light of April Fools Day.
