Use of AI to promote creative courses criticised

The council's booklet used AI to create the cover - given away by mistakes including the wrong number of fingers and toes

Designers have criticised a council after it used artwork created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) to promote adult learning courses.

Illustrator Adam Birch complained to Bristol City Council after it released a course guide with an AI cover, adding that using AI to tell people about creative workshops "devalues" the classes.

But he also said it might have been misguided rather than "malicious".

Bristol City Council leader Tony Dyer said it was updating its guidance around AI and understood the issue raised.

Mr Birch made it clear he does not want the booklet's AI cover to deter people from taking the creative courses.

He said: "My big concern about it was - is it sending the wrong message?

"Why learn these [creative] skills if, right on the face of the book, you're devaluing the use of it?"

Mr Birch said there are certain "mistakes" that let the viewer know an image has been created by AI.

"Extra or missing fingers and toes is always a dead giveaway," he said.

"On the cover [of the booklet], the lady only has four fingers and I think seven toes."

Mr Birch hoped his criticism of the booklet's cover would not deter people from going to the classes

Mr Birch, who creates illustrations for various outlets, said it was not lost on him that he has got to "move with the times" as an artist.

"I appreciate it from all angles," he said. "This [cover] cost next to nothing to generate.

"But it would have cost next to nothing to take a photo of one of the classes going on - or used some work from the classes as the material on the cover.

"What you're doing is wiping out a job."

Luke Oram said AI could be damaging to people starting out in creative industries

Luke Oram, an artist and illustrator from Wick, in South Gloucestershire, said he believed AI will affect young people trying to get a start in the creative industry.

"I worry about the 22-year-old graduate who has no idea how to get into a career, or how to even find any work, who then just feels completely undervalued," he said.

"[They'll be] alienated from the culture they're working in because those opportunities just aren't common anymore."

"It's the erosion of knowledge," he added. "[AI] is damaging."

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Despite this, some in the creative industry have told the BBC there's a pressure to use AI.

An artist working from Leamington Spa, who wanted to remain anonymous, said his CEO is now recommending his company use AI in their work.

"We're being told to bring our heads out of the sand," he said.

"But the people who will be enriched by AI are at the top. For the people expected to use it, they see it as the opposite of what we should be doing."

He added: "AI is 'fast-food'. We never stop to think about whether we should - it's always whether we could."

Council 'understands issues'

The creative course booklets were distributed in July and a total of 72,000 were printed.

Up to 70,250 booklets went to individuals and organisations in Bristol, with a few to South Gloucestershire and North Somerset postcodes.

There are no plans for any further print runs.

Mr Dyer said the council fully understands the issues raised.

"While AI presents exciting opportunities for local authorities to improve and adapt their services, we recognise the strong feelings expressed by residents over our use of AI-generated imagery for this booklet," he said.

"We are currently trialling some limited use of AI and developing our policies and procedures as we learn."

Mr Dyer added that since the imagery for the booklet was commissioned, the council has updated its guidance for the use of AI.