Sakura Grove's website and Discord server may contain art that was co-created by AI. Every piece of art here has a human hand involved, and nothing is created purely by AI. Sakura Grove currently has one artist: Maxi. That's me! I am also the creator of the site. Here's how I create AI art pieces:
I use the iOS app "Draw Things". This is a free app that locally runs Stable Diffusion on newer iPhones, iPads, and Macs. I use the model yiffy_f16 (yes I know the name is odd, you can make NSFW with it but I turn those options off), which specializes in generating anthropromorphic animal characters. I write a prompt and generate a rough image. I use image to image generation until I am pleased with the art piece. But the AI does not do all of the work. The piece that the AI generates is used as a base for my own art. I add details turning the characters the AI created into my own characters. For instance, I might add Rosie's white markings onto a pink dragon. I use IbisPaint for this process. This is another free app for iOS and Android. It is used for illustration and basic animation. Through this process, the AI generated art piece becomes my own.
These pieces were created using the process I described above. Every other piece of art on the site was created without using AI
I often hear that AI art "steals" from online artists. I do not think this is true. The AI simply does what the human mind does: taking in information and spitting it back out as something unique. However, I do think that it is wrong to use an artist's work to train an AI model without their consent.
The other moral dilemma with AI art is that it will push human artists out of the industry. That is a valid concern, as AI art is almost at the level where it could do that. I think AI is best used alongside human artists. AI can be a helpful tool for artists. For instance, I have aphantasia due to my autism. I cannot picture things clearly in my mind like other people can. Especially not poses for my art. But an AI model can pose my characters for me, and then I am free to add in the details that I want. But this does not fix the issue. AI may still replace artists in the business world. I do not have an answer for this. Hopefully, laws will be made to prevent this from happening, though I do not know what they would look like.
AI must be used responsibly. It can be a helpful tool, but can also be used to copy and replace artists. I take special care that I am not directly copying other artists, and that I only use AI art as a sort of base for my own art. I continue to commission fellow artists and create art myself. I believe that this is the best way to responsibly use AI art.