Digital Artist Shares What It’s Like To Have His Work “Ruined by AI”

These days, there is a lot of debate about the rise of AI—both good and bad. As the use of this technology becomes commonplace, people are naturally more skeptical of everything they read and see. And while heightened awareness isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's had an unexpected impact on creatives. Specifically, digital artists have seen their hard work increasingly attributed to AI—a disheartening misjudgement of art that is the fruit of hard work.

UK-based digital artist Karl Roberts, who uses his skills as a photographer and with Photoshop to create surreal imagery, vented about his frustrations on the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit. In the title of his post, Roberts mentions that his work as both a graphic designer and photographer had been “ruined by AI.”

“I've been a digital artist since I was 10, I learned photoshop, taught myself everything, went to college, university, started my own business, created everyday, now everyone thinks my art is AI generated,” he laments. To prove his point, he added a grid of his images as well as images of commenters accusing him of working with AI.

We wanted to dive deeper into this conversation and hear more about the struggles that Roberts is currently facing as a creative. Scroll down for My Modern Met's exclusive interview with the artist, where we discuss his creative process and what it feels like to have his art dismissed as AI.

Can you share your background as a digital artist? What started you along this path?

I feel as though I've always been an artist, I have a vivid memory of taking a disposable camera around on holiday; I think I must've been about five or six. I always had sketchbooks or notepads, creating characters or little worlds in those books. I'd say when I was around 10 or 11 I first discovered Photoshop—it was great because I could make anything. I used to get really good grades in my film and tv class because I could manipulate a few images together to make movie posters!

Since then it's been a part of my life, making 2D graphics, logos, stop motion and editing photos, I've turned it into an art form, reaching into the most niche tools of Photoshop. After school I went to college for film and television. I fell in love with the cameras mainly, film was great but what really stuck with me was photography, so I decided to go back to college and study photography. From there, my style has undergone so many changes and I came around to self portraits in 2019 or so, and since then it's evolved into a huge project combining everything I've ever learned and focusing on one goal: to convey my emotions and feelings into art, to speak without talking.

How did your Photoshop and artistic skills come in handy in terms of your career and how you supported yourself?

I pride myself on my Photoshop skills and have had a few full-time jobs where Photoshop has been my main tool.

In a recent Reddit post, you mentioned that your career had been “ruined by AI.” Can you elaborate on this?

I think it's the comments but also the unspoken comments. I imagine someone who comes across my work and just scrolls past it thinking, “oh that's AI generated” without a second thought and before I could even explain myself. That's not to say that I create art just to post online for likes and comments but it's definitely disheartening knowing that the 6 week projects I go through can be done in minutes or even seconds by an AI.

When did you begin noticing that AI and people's skepticism about digital images was impacting your work?

I think about a year ago, in late 2023/early 2024. At first, AI-generated art was very obvious but the more it advances and learns, the better it gets. We're at a point now where you really have to know what you're looking for to spot something made artificially.

Work in progress

How does it feel when people dismiss your work as AI instead of seeing the work behind it?

Heartbreaking, really, knowing I really did put 16 years into my art, eight of which were a constant, daily pursuit of creating every day. I'm a complete loyalist when it comes to my art; everything you see in my pictures is a real photograph. I found or bought the props, the outfits, the locations, everything was done by hand.

I don't use any stock images and my actual editing process on Photoshop is very manual. I do everything meticulously like cutting out singular limbs and sewing pieces of clothing together. So, knowing that process can now be trivialized with AI is really heartbreaking, to be honest.

Some would say that it's smart to be more discerning about what we see online and be more aware of AI imagery. As a creative how would you counter this?

Hmm tricky one, maybe a watermark or a tag to signify an AI generated image? I'm unsure really, because the line between AI and human made art is, unfortunately, becoming more blurry.

Do you see a way for AI and the type of work that you do to co-exist?

No, never. I can say with 100% certainty that none of my images have or will ever use stock images or AI. Like I said, I'm a loyalist to my craft and it's staying that way.

What do you think the public should be more aware of in terms of AI and the creative sector?

In an ideal world you'd have a tag or watermark on AI-generated content but so much would slip through. It's funny that AI will probably be making the calls on what's AI-generated and what's not. Same goes the other way, how many real images will be flagged as AI, like the commenters on my Reddit have assumed?

Karl Roberts: Instagram | Behance