{"id":446128,"date":"2026-02-26T05:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/446128\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T05:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:55:16","slug":"its-not-art-isles-artists-rail-against-use-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/446128\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s not art\u2019 \u2013 isles artists rail against use of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What do artificial intelligence (AI) and art have in common?<\/p>\n<p>For three Shetland artists, the answer is the first three letters \u2013 and that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n<p>AI-generated images have dominated social media in recent weeks as part of a trend where people produce images of themselves at work, or surrounded by some of their favourite hobbies.<\/p>\n<p>Community halls, clubs and Up Helly Aa festivals have joined in by using posters created through AI to promote everything from quiz nights to hop day celebrations.<\/p>\n<p>The appeal of AI and websites such as ChatGPT is obvious \u2013 it\u2019s quick and it\u2019s free.<\/p>\n<p>But with the world reckoning with AI\u2019s effect on the environment, its mimicking of other artist\u2019s works and its use of private data, questions are being asked about how ethical it really is.<\/p>\n<p>Keen drawer Leanne Spence, graphic designer Chloe Keppie and famed folklore artist Dirk Robertson are united in their dislike of AI and its use to create \u2018art\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>In Chloe\u2019s job at a Glasgow design company, she says her and her colleagues have become accustomed to people bringing in AI designs and asking them to echo them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople almost want things yesterday now, so they\u2019ll mock things up with AI and ask you \u2018can you do something with this\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut that\u2019s not something I would want to do. It just looks crap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClients will say they can do something with AI immediately and ask, \u2018how fast can you do it\u2019, so we\u2019re all having to work faster.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The musicians that Chloe routinely works with in designing artwork for bands in Glasgow and beyond are facing similar dilemmas.<\/p>\n<p>AI music is on the rise too, with increasing complaints from Spotify users about the streaming website inserting artificially generated songs into playlists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"row-text sign-in-message\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/account.shetnews.co.uk\/?redirect_to=https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2026\/02\/25\/its-not-art-isles-artists-rail-against-use-of-ai\/\" title=\"Sign in\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign in<\/a> to hide this message.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re all kind of looking after each other,\u201d Chloe told Shetland News. \u201cAI is there now, and it\u2019s everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leanne Spence\u2019s own version of the AI trend, as drawn by herself.<\/p>\n<p>Leanne took to social media earlier this month to share a hand-drawn image of herself, accompanied by items from her day job as a learning support worker.<\/p>\n<p>Intended as an antidote to the ChatGPT caricature trend, Leanne wrote that it was important to remember that AI \u201cisn\u2019t real art, isn\u2019t real creativity and is slowly taking over in our modern world\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>She said she had become \u201cfrustrated\u201d by her Facebook feed being overcome with AI-generated images.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was shocked at the amount of people creating the over exaggerated cartoons, even small business owners using the pictures to advertise their professional businesses,\u201d Leanne said.<\/p>\n<p>While she said she could see the benefits of AI \u2013 which she admitted \u201ccan be a great tool\u201d \u2013 Leanne said she hated the way it was being used on social media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s being used in such wasteful ways which serve zero positive impact,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I found really concerning was the prompt being used to create these images: \u2018use everything you know about me\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that AI is collecting and analysing all of our personal information and data to create these images, yet nobody is questioning what happens to this data or the negative impacts this is having on our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Google\u2019s own AI overview \u2013 who better to ask \u2013 admits that AI has a \u201csignificant environmental footprint\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This is mainly driven by \u201cmassive energy consumption in data centres\u201d and high water usage for cooling electrical components.<\/p>\n<p>Despite her frustrations about the wide use of AI art, Leanne admits she was nervous about sharing her own drawing to Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t want to offend or shame anyone who I knew personally had already participated in the viral trend,\u201d she said. \u201cI simply just wanted to make people stop and think before \u2018just jumping on the bandwagon\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chloe shared Leanne\u2019s frustration about the use of ChatGPT in the latest social media craze, in which she said \u201cnonsensical images\u201d were generated for little purpose.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt just feels pointless. It might be fun for a few seconds, but that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Artist Dirk Robertson has called AI art \u201cdumb\u201d and \u201cmeaningless\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Artist Dirk, famed for his enduring works with Up Helly Aa squads around the isles, was even more critical of the use of AI in a social media post earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAI generated images are not art,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s dumb. It\u2019s meaningless. It makes rich people richer. It steals from artists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou didn\u2019t make anything at all and you cannot take credit for it. Don\u2019t use it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both Chloe and Leanne were more pragmatic in their views on the use of AI in other industries, but both believe it has no place in the art world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a lot of people do realise that it\u2019s terrible,\u201d Chloe said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not too concerned about losing my job yet because I think people still value the human touch. They want something that feels real and has been created by a person.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think the design industry is a dead job yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said AI \u201cdoes have benefits if you use it carefully\u201d, adding she had seen it used adeptly at a previous agency when working with animation.<\/p>\n<p>But she said she would never use it in any way for creating artworks or images.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe part of the job I enjoy most is the creation part,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t get any joy if you play in a command into the website. AI cuts all of that out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leanne was unequivocal in her view that AI \u201chas no place in art at all\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it devalues humans with real skills and talents,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Chloe Keppie\u2019s Love Shack influenced poster for Hounds of Love 2026, which was created by hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAI\u2019s ability to generate instant high-quality images is already reducing the demand for real human creatives such as illustrators, designers and musicians, going on to threaten their livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said she had recently started up her own wedding stationery business, and she prided herself on the fact that her all her work was drawn by her hand.<\/p>\n<p>However she said she was already finding it \u201cincreasingly difficult\u201d to advertise herself against AI designs which were dominating the industry.<\/p>\n<p>Chloe believes AI will be seen as a fad which is \u201cfun at first\u201d but eventually gives way to more analogue methods again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook at things like vinyl skipping or film pictures not being in focus, the things the people were annoyed about back in the day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are going back to that because that\u2019s what they want. AI is obviously so precise, and people are realising they like the imperfections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leanne said AI would never be a \u201creplacement for personal creativity\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think AI-generated images will make human made art more valuable in the future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAI art lacks any emotion or originality and this along with our imperfections are what makes human art \u2018real\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is something about creating art with your own hands and mind that AI can never replace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shetland News is asking its readers to consider paying for membership to get additional perks:<\/p>\n<p>Removal of third-party ads;<br \/>\nBookmark posts to read later;<br \/>\nExclusive curated weekly newsletter;<br \/>\nHide membership messages;<br \/>\nComments open for discussion.<\/p>\n<p>If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.<\/p>\n<p class=\"row-text sign-in-message\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/account.shetnews.co.uk\/?redirect_to=https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2026\/02\/25\/its-not-art-isles-artists-rail-against-use-of-ai\/\" title=\"Sign in\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign in<\/a> to hide this message.<\/p>\n<p>\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/payments_horizontal_2.png\" alt=\"Payment methods accepted\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What do artificial intelligence (AI) and art have in common? For three Shetland artists, the answer is the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,161934,161935,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-446128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-dirk","tag-robertson","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}