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Futureproof

How artists are responding in the age of AI.

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Image: Jackson Gibbs / The Verge

AI tools are flooding the culture ecosystem — and no corner of the arts space is immune. In this series, we’re looking at the ways artists are embracing AI, pushing back on it, or trying their best to find an equilibrium with a new technology that’s both sweeping and destabilizing. We talk to perfumers questioning the looming automation of scent creation, fanfic writers pushing back on archive scrapers, and illustrators replacing the AI that once replaced them. The tech isn’t going away. Here’s how artists are starting to deal with it.

How The Roottrees are Dead ditched AI and became a hit

One of this year’s hit puzzle games wouldn’t have existed without AI — but it wouldn’t have become a hit without a human to replace it.

Jay CastelloCommentsComment Icon Bubble
What happens when you feed AI nothing

Artist Terence Broad makes AI produce images without any training data at all.

Franklin SchneiderCommentsComment Icon Bubble
AI residencies are trying to change the conversation around artificial art

The residencies aren’t ‘choosing sides,’ but they could still shift how the public views AI.

You sound like ChatGPT

AI isn’t just impacting how we write — it’s changing how we speak and interact with others. And there’s only more to come.

The music industry is building the tech to hunt down AI songs

With no way to stop the onslaught of AI music, the industry is taking a different approach: figuring out how to make money off of it.

Jack BuehrerCommentsComment Icon Bubble
Hollywood’s pivot to AI video has a prompting problem

Asteria co-founder Bryn Mooser dreams of a future where filmmakers and gen AI models can coexist as creative partners.

Charles Pulliam-MooreCommentsComment Icon Bubble
Graphic artists in China push back on AI and its averaging effect

‘It forces both designers and clients to rethink the value of designers.’

AI is ruining houseplant communities online

‘It’s disconnecting us further from reality, relationships with nature, and also our community.‘

Nicole FroioCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The artist using AI to reconstruct stories lost to censorship

Almagul Menlibayeva looks at AI as a way to reflect the biases of its creators.

Elise MortonCommentsComment Icon Bubble
How AI infiltrated perfume

AI is rapidly changing how fragrance is created — and who gets credit. Some say it’s innovation. Others call it erasure.

Arabelle SicardiCommentsComment Icon Bubble
Fanfiction writers battle AI, one scrape at a time

‘It is a gift. They stole it without my permission.’

Decca MuldowneyCommentsComment Icon Bubble
What happens when AI comes for our fonts?

The future of typography is uncertain.

Geoffrey BuntingCommentsComment Icon Bubble
How The Roottrees are Dead ditched AI and became a hit

One of this year’s hit puzzle games wouldn’t have existed without AI — but it wouldn’t have become a hit without a human to replace it.

Jay CastelloCommentsComment Icon Bubble
What happens when you feed AI nothing

Artist Terence Broad makes AI produce images without any training data at all.

Franklin SchneiderCommentsComment Icon Bubble
AI residencies are trying to change the conversation around artificial art

The residencies aren’t ‘choosing sides,’ but they could still shift how the public views AI.

You sound like ChatGPT

AI isn’t just impacting how we write — it’s changing how we speak and interact with others. And there’s only more to come.

The music industry is building the tech to hunt down AI songs

With no way to stop the onslaught of AI music, the industry is taking a different approach: figuring out how to make money off of it.

Jack BuehrerCommentsComment Icon Bubble
Hollywood’s pivot to AI video has a prompting problem

Asteria co-founder Bryn Mooser dreams of a future where filmmakers and gen AI models can coexist as creative partners.

Charles Pulliam-MooreCommentsComment Icon Bubble
Graphic artists in China push back on AI and its averaging effect

‘It forces both designers and clients to rethink the value of designers.’

AI is ruining houseplant communities online

‘It’s disconnecting us further from reality, relationships with nature, and also our community.‘

Nicole FroioCommentsComment Icon Bubble
The artist using AI to reconstruct stories lost to censorship

Almagul Menlibayeva looks at AI as a way to reflect the biases of its creators.

Elise MortonCommentsComment Icon Bubble
How AI infiltrated perfume

AI is rapidly changing how fragrance is created — and who gets credit. Some say it’s innovation. Others call it erasure.

Arabelle SicardiCommentsComment Icon Bubble
Fanfiction writers battle AI, one scrape at a time

‘It is a gift. They stole it without my permission.’

Decca MuldowneyCommentsComment Icon Bubble
What happens when AI comes for our fonts?

The future of typography is uncertain.

Geoffrey BuntingCommentsComment Icon Bubble