The Bulwark is a US political news and analysis site. It is not the first time a publication has used machine learning art generators in this way, but it is the first time it has not made a full song and dance about it.
Magazines have used artificial intelligence to turn their covers into stories in the past. As far as we can tell, the change hasn't been publicized. It is a sign of a maturing technology. The news was published in Charles Arthur's newsletter, The Overspill, where we saw it.
It is interesting to see how the technology is being used. The publication uses an artificial intelligence image generator called Midjourney, which is known for its appealing, aesthetic style that mimics modern digital illustration. The publication combines Midjourney's output with stock photos.
The stock image of King Charles III is superimposed over the UK flag in the picture below. There is a human involved in the creation of these pictures, but it is likely a less taxing way to make these attractive and unique illustrations than it is to draw them from scratch.
Is it possible that someone lost work because of this? At the time of writing, The Bulwark has not yet responded to our inquiries. It's possible that the site was using third-party illustrators before this. Maybe the site's art budget was already cut and their in-house illustrators just decided to use artificial intelligence to improve their images. Some of these images don't use stock photos at all, which undermines the market
These details matter a lot, but they don't. It is clear that artificial intelligence image generators are becoming part of the art community, working as a halfway house between stock imagery and original illustrations, balancing lower costs in terms of time and money spent, but producing images that are more unique than stock.
It is certain that the rise of tools like these will mean that illustrators lose out on some work. How the market as a whole changes in the future is unknown.
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