Generative AI and the Degeneration of the Illustrator Profession

Abstract

This article examines the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on the illustrator profession, revealing a contradiction between the promise of democratizing art and the reality of exploiting artistic labor and devaluing human creativity. GenAI, by improperly appropriating artists' works to train its algorithms without permission or compensation, perpetuates the concentration of power in large technology corporations and destabilizes artistic practice, threatening the livelihood of illustrators. The article argues that GenAI, by reducing artistic creation to mere command input, ignores the complexity of the human creative process, which involves years of practice, the development of a personal style, and the incorporation of life experiences. The uniqueness of a work of art, its "aura" in the Benjaminian sense, is eroded by the mass production of artificially generated images. Faced with this scenario, the article proposes a return to the materiality of art, through physical media and fine arts, as a form of resistance to the dehumanization of digital art. Public awareness about the importance of valuing human art is crucial to ensure the sustainability of illustration and the preservation of creativity as an expression of the human soul. The choice between human and artificial art, therefore, transcends the technological sphere, constituting an ethical and political decision with profound implications for the future of culture.