Artists and writers are wary of artificial intelligence (AI), but could well work with it… This is the conclusion of a survey carried out in June 2024 on “the impact of artificial intelligence on the activity and income of image and written artists”. This was launched by the Society of People of Letters (SGDL) and the Society of Authors in Graphic and Plastic Arts (Adagp). In total, 1,614 artists and authors of the written and visual arts responded.
A threat, especially for comics
More precisely, the questionnaire focused on so-called “generative” artificial intelligence, namely capable of creating content “which take the appearance of those that creators can create, whether texts, images, videos or music”. A more sophisticated use than the simple resolution of a problem in the field of classic AI. For 60% of responding artist authors, “the rise of generative AI represents a threat to their professional activity”, while 20% of them consider that the tool will have no impact on their activity, whether it relates to writing or visual arts. With disparities: in this last sector, the concern is greater for illustrators and comic book authors (78% are worried) than for visual artists (52%). Finally, for 78% of translators, the threat is real. Still, with or without AI, 82% of respondents see no effect of generative AI on the volume of their creative activity to date.
Informing themselves mainly through the press about AI, creators lack training but are not entirely ignorant of its capabilities. 41% of them have already used it. A use which was mainly for the production of texts. Illustrators remain the most distant, with only 30% of them having used AI. Still, even if the impact varies depending on the discipline, artificial intelligence has nevertheless established itself in the artistic sector in a short time. Which leads to a slight paradox between the announced distrust and the result proposed by the AI, deemed satisfactory for 65% of those who tested (58% for writers).
The urgency of a debate
Despite the acuteness of the issue, AI is not part of the debate between creators and sponsors, publishers or clients, reports the study. Only 5% of respondents were asked to use it and only 3% of them were prohibited from doing so. For the vast majority, the subject has never been discussed… As proof: 97% of creators have not been informed by their sponsors of their policy regarding AI.
If AI is therefore slowly but surely entering artistic practice, creators nonetheless remain vigilant about its development, and want its use to be transparent. 87% believe that “the use of a label directly identifiable by the reader could be useful in order to identify the different degrees of use of an AI in a textual or artistic creation. »
Possible users of AI, artists, on the other hand, take a dim view of artificial intelligence drawing on their own production… 65% are opposed to it, but 34% are not against it, on condition of remuneration. 56% would also like to know how to oppose it (65% of writers). “This is explained by the fact that no technical solution has until now been made available to authors to enable them to express, in a simple and effective manner, their right to object to the use of their works by AI for commercial purposes”, specifies the investigation.
Carried out from the free responses of more than a thousand artists and authors, the survey certainly has no scientific value, but the percentages displayed are a significant reflection of the concerns on the one hand, but also of a taken into account by the creators of the developments. Logically suspicious of tools “capable of producing images and texts in large numbers in short periods of time”underlines the survey, artists and authors are ready to take it into account, while having the concern to defend their own creative activity.