G.AI.AI - Illustrators And Artists Passed Over For Profit
Last Saturday, the GAA published the covers of the match programmes for the games taking place that weekend. It was not something that would usually spark any comment, but within minutes social media was awash with consternation, but why?
The covers were clearly generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, with illustrators, graphic designers and artists immediately up in arms at GAA’s decision to overlook them in favour of AI.
The programme covers themselves were quite bizarre, with ‘Roy of the Rovers’ style imagery being prominent, which was definitely a style departure, but it wasn’t until one looked closer at the ‘designs’ that the many discrepancies contained within the images became clear.
The programme for the Munster Minor Hurling final between Clare and Tipperary.
The most obvious one was emblazoned on the programme for the Munster Minor Hurling final between Clare and Tipperary - the players were wearing American Football style helmets, with a noticeable space between the face-guard, definitely big enough to get a bang of a sliotar in the face! Other noticeable discrepancies include hurls that disappear into the players’ arms, a Clare player with three arms, and none of them holding the hurl that seems to be floating behind them.
The combined programme for the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship games had a generic Hurler playing in Croke Park without a helmet and wearing some sort of golf glove. A third programme from the Under-20 B Championship appeared to show soccer goalposts on the pitch.
The combined programme for the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship games in Croke Park
While this is all extremely shoddy, with the GAA having already been rightly called out for it, there is a deeper underlying issue, this being that the labour of illustrators and artists is being pillaged by AI image generating tools, virtually cutting these workers out of the design process.
AI does not and cannot imagine for itself what a Munster Minor Hurling programme looks like; instead it references the thousands of data points already in existence on the internet, essentially stealing tiny pieces of other people’s work, before then blending it together to create its own interpretation of the data points it has collated.
AI being used to cut out the financial costs associated with human labour within the corporate sphere is to be expected as prioritising profit above all other considerations is an inherent aspect of that system.
The GAA however, with its raison d’etre being the promotion and preservation of native pastimes and culture, should be the last organisation to consider using AI to cut-out Irish artists and illustrators in the name of saving money and increasing profits.
We have written previously about the ongoing battle for the soul of the GAA, and we hope this latest controversy puts to bed the idea that AI generated ‘art’ has any place within the organisation.