AI is here, and it’s had a major boost in development over the past five years. According to research by Our World in Data, a system that just two decades ago learned to play backgammon below human comprehension can now fully recognize language and image at the same level.
AI can be used for task management: checking the weather, transcribing audio, translating languages, and more. Perhaps more alarmingly, it can also create images and videos, write articles and essays, and help (or hurt) you in the hiring process. AI is not new, but its growing use and investment could have an impact on LGBTQ+ artists and what they contribute.
Many LGBTQ+ artists are feeling the effects of AI-generated imagery on their already underfunded voices. According to Gallup, roughly 7.6% of U.S. adults self-identify as LGBTQ+, and according to 2021 UCLA research roughly 17% of LGBTQ+ individuals are living in poverty. This software, if remained unchecked, can take away employment opportunities for those who have spent much of their lives devoted to their craft, relying on their industries’ need for authenticity, creating an even bigger disparity for LGBTQ+ people, especially those of color and non-cis identities.
“AI has taken opportunities from us in a field that has already slowly dwindled down on opportunities for us,” says Eily.S, a Philadelphia queer artist with a chronic illness. “Art has almost always catered to wealthy straight people. With AI now hopping on the bandwagon, even more companies and jobs would rather have poorly designed AI art pieces instead of ones made by people. We were already struggling to find jobs before in the art world, and this makes it almost impossible.”
In 2022, a group of artists brought forth a class-action lawsuit against AI image generators, Midjourney and Stability AI. The software companies were accused of ripping off the various artists’ previously existing — and original — work. It would make images that stylistically looked either eerily similar or straight up copy and paste. Research additionally indicated that the generators would use the artist’ names and work as suggestions for making specific design choices for the user-requested depictions, like “Lord of The Rings-style art.”
The software used and retooled the art without providing consent, compensation or credit to the original creators. While NCSL reports various states working to keep this expanding technology limited, there is currently very little legislation being done on the federal level to require a rigorous checks and balances system when it comes to AI use, and the ethical dilemmas the stories of these artists raise. The results could be especially disastrous for artists of marginalized backgrounds, including those who are LGBTQ+.
Queer filmmaker and painter Joann Nguyen says, “Personally, I am afraid of Al’s evolution as a whole. I was once enamored of the possibilities that it can provide but I had no idea that it would be used in the arts. As a video editor and painter, I am afraid of the harsh effects it can have when we are trying to tell authentic stories.”
Nguyen expands, “The human spirit plays a huge part in the arts. The rhythm of music, editing and even capturing an emotion is so crucial to the art and filmmaking process. I am afraid that Al would act as a replacement for those qualities because they were so heavily based on human emotion. As a post-grad student who is trying to get into film, I am afraid to go into an industry of larger companies so focused on speed and convenience. I’ve already seen what AI could generate, and it makes me worry if my creative abilities could match.”
AI-generated imagery is currently all the rage on social media. As this tech received more investment and access to real and previously existing works of art (photography, graphic design, film, drawing, etc), it is able to be more and more realistic, and many who might not take the time to research an image’s validity are falling prey to scams of AI images being passed off as real. This adds in a new way for misinformation to spread, an already problematic “infodemic” in the U.S. that directly impacts LGBTQ+ organizations and communities.
“I’ve been doing graphic design specifically for political organizations since my sophomore year of college, and since graduating I’ve had a job as the graphic designer and researcher for a political consulting firm,” says Maya Arbel, a Philadelphia queer graphic artist. “I’ve noticed when I tell people [about] my career, a lot of comments I hear are that Al is going to take over my job. I also understand the fear, but frankly when you look at Al art it’s usually pretty bad, especially concerning things like text and creating accurate humans.”
She goes on to say, “I’m not too worried about Al for the time being, which seems ironic given the nature of my job, but I guess I just have confidence in my niche abilities enough to feel like I have a handle on things. There’s also no one queer at my job other than me. I don’t feel like Al could replace my ability to tie politics at the local level into my queer identity.”
Video AI technology such as OpenAI’s Sora, which can create video from text, is now being promoted by art institutions themselves, such as long-respected organizations like Tribeca Enterprises, and halting the active work of those within the film industry. Earlier this year, Hollywood producer Tyler Perry put an $800 million studio expansion on hold after seeing the power and magnitude of what Sora could do.
“As a young queer filmmaker, it has felt like a slow burn, witnessing just how our industry will be overrun by robotic and systematized processes,” said Benjamin Lazzaro, a filmmaker in Philadelphia. “Al has majorly influenced how I tell stories and for who. I [find] artistic expression to be both healing and intrinsically human. Future projects I create must stress the importance of this therapeutic practice to general audiences.”
An issue that many raise is that AI does not provide original works of art, rather amalgamations of already existing works. Popular filmmaker Michael Bay recently posted a photo to Instagram with the caption, “Speaking about A.I. – it doesn’t CREATE it just IMITATES. And will create a whole bunch of lazy people. So to all the Original Creators out there, have No Fear!”
While the technology may reach a breaking point and general disinterest, the underrepresentation of queer identities and storytelling can still be widened by artists whose work is taken out of their control. Additionally, much of popular art such as film has historically been from a heteronormative storytelling perspective. In an age where queer cinema is expanding, and intersectional voices are growing louder, AI generators could snuff them out, relegating audience goers to the same stories that have been told for hundreds of years, without any ingenuity.
The energy required for AI generators to work is now a trending topic, which connects to economic and environmental disparities faced by LGBTQ+ individuals.
According to a report from The Washington Post, using ChatGPT to draft up an email requires a little over a bottle of water to cool the equipment housed in the companies data centers. When about 16 million people use one generator weekly for a year, it requires the same amount of water as consumed by all Rhode Island households for 1.5 days. Water-cooling can deplete local areas of natural resources, resulting in local climate change.
A 2024 UCLA research study found that LGBTQ+ couples are at a greater risk of exposure toward negative effects of climate change compared to heterosexual couples, largely due to their increased likelihood of living in lower-income communities. In 2023, an article published on Earth.org entitled “Climate Change’s Unequal Burden: Why Do Low-Income Communities Bear the Brunt?” highlighted key problems that lower-income communities face, including loss of livelihood and increased health risks, from climate change. As LGBTQ+ individuals are more likely to be in poverty or have lower income than non-LGBTQ+ individuals, it is not hard to see how depletion of local resources, like water, with the overuse of generative AI can put local LGBTQ+ communities in danger.
This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab through News is Out. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.