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Shadiversity's Claim About Honing His 'AI Assisted Art' Skills Garners Much Ridicule From Artists Online, Boosted Further After People Learned Who His Brother Is

October 11th, 2023 - 11:03 PM EDT by Sakshi Rakshale

12 comments

(X / @shadmbrooks)

Earlier this week, X user and YouTuber Shadiversity made a series of posts penned as a sort of love letter to AI art, but his talk about honing his AI-assisted art skills fell flat on an audience of mostly artists on X as his sentiments resulted in backlash.

@ShadMBrooks posted two side-by-side photos of AI-generated Supergirls, with one of the images showing more detail in terms of color and setting. Attached at the bottom of the image is the text, "Don't let people tell you AI Art requires no skill [sic] and you 'just' press a button to make AI Assisted Art."

Perhaps as a result of the post drifting into artist circles on X rather than the tech-bros who marvel at things like Spiral Town, @ShadMBrooks's post did not go well with many of the people who saw it.

Some of the first knee-jerk reactions to his post from artists were people saying that the art may seem more detailed at first glance but shows glaring mistakes on closer inspection.

For example, X user @sith_art pointed out basic lighting mistakes in Brook's post, adding that anyone has the potential to be a real artist if they only tried.

Other X users took a more lighthearted route to criticizing @ShadMBrooks, with @savannahXYZart posting an edited version of his infographic and taking the opportunity to share some of her own, original art, made in reference to Colleen Ballinger's infamous "apology" video.

But the merits or demerits of making "AI Assisted Art" aside, many artists thought that @ShadMBrooks's biggest sin was merely unabashed arrogance.

As seen in a conversation between X users @henningsanden and @thesalvare, it was Brook's perceived braggadociousness in his original post that ticked people off. This was compounded by the likely fact that it is AI generation systems that are evolving, not @ShadMBrooks' skills.

As discussions about @ShadMBrooks' post began to wind down, some internet sleuths realized another crucial facet of the story: Shadiversity is the brother of YouTuber Draw with Jazza, a popular YouTuber who teaches his audience how to make art with an "Anyone Can Draw!" type attitude.



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Mistress Fortune

I never really watched Shadiversity before, but what made me go "don't think I'll be watching him at all" was when he made it clear he's also basically a stereotypical "anti-SJW" YouTuber, with his rants about the Mario movie in particular and constantly insisting the movie is "woke" all because Peach isn't portrayed as a typical damsel-in-distress made me go "dude just shut up."

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Bobby G

This is just a weird post. AI art is fine. It does require a lot of skill to manipulate the software. It will never be copyrightable. On the otherhand, it also takes a lot of skill to operate photoshop and high end digital art software. Those do a lot of heavy lifting to cover up the lack of manual skill in real world art. If we were being honest, that whole branch would also get chucked into the non-copyrightable pile. It is just a different form of "AI assisted art." Most people are legitimately using AI art for mockups, examples, and cards in conversational or essay style videos. Before, the art would just get stolen for usage, now it is AI art. Basic assets in 2d games. The majority of internet artists don't really care if they steal art wholesale, they only care when it's their own actual art. You can't just draw Batgirl and make money off of it.

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Bobby G

in reply to Bobby G

Just so we are clear, I'm getting downvoted over the fact that internet digital artists are known for their rampant thievery and don't like being called out on their hilarious hypocrisy. You can also tell this entire article came from a place of hate as hate bate for a hate train over AI art. So any defense over AI art is just going to draw ire from the hate bated raging out for the aforementioned hypocrites.

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GreenLinzerd

in reply to Bobby G

[posts factually incorrect information]
"I'm getting downvoted because of hypocrisy!"

No but seriously, the Photoshop comparison is laughable. Photoshop does have a few AI tools, mainly stuff like content-aware fill or red eye removal – you know, stuff to fix small details. Otherwise, yes it is a far more advanced tool than a HB pencil and sheet of printer paper, but it is just a tool. What you get out of it is equal to what you put in, same as photography or any other medium, and the end result is YOUR WORK. AI generators, on the other hand, ARE the "artists" in this analogy. If you dictate a prompt to an artist and then they draw it, that's called a commission! The result is your IDEA, but it's not your WORK.

And as for the stealing thing, you clearly haven't been near any art communities, because stealing art, tracing, or generally taking credit for other people's work, is the fastest way to get banned and blacklisted. And even if you’re arguing that making art based on someone else's work counts as "stealing" it, that's a total false equivalency because as discussed, unlike AI art, if you draw something yourself then it's YOUR WORK so you aren't purely profiting off someone else's work with little effort of your own. Most artists love to share their techniques with other artists (why do you think there are so many tutorials out there?), but they do not want to have their work appropriated by an unthinking, unfeeling machine.

Also it's spelled "bait"

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Nox Lucis

in reply to Chouseng

She's one I used to watch, stopped watching for good while, and now I hear everything exploded or something and now she's considered abhorrent with constant videos by smaller YouTubers in my recommended.
I'm waiting for a trusted source to cover the matter so I don't get my opinions caught up in any breaking-news tangle of he-said-she-said.

As for Shad, I liked Sam Fennah's response to it if you're willing to sit through three hours of it.
What stands out to me is that Shad harps on about his "artistic eye" and "knowledge of anatomy" and how he uses those in perfecting his AI images. However, if you look at his sketches his style is anatomically bankrupt, and artistic detail like color and texture seem to be struggle areas. It seems to me that he leans on AI as a crutch for his week areas while refusing to acknowledge these as weak areas. He then struggles to recognize where his AI images are slightly off in those areas.

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