Local Artists Use Generative AI on their Terms
- May 4
- 6 min read
Visual artists are witnessing so-called “AI slop” infiltrate digital art with imagery of warped and oddly, abundant human appendages as artificial intelligence attempts to reproduce artwork familiar to their own. Many are predicting generative AI’s continued advancement will lead them into job displacement, while some Massachusetts-based artists are integrating the technology into their work.
Generative AI’s sinister reputation among artists emerged as creative AI tools became mainstay programs that could help expedite a project’s completion, or fill in for skills lacking in a digital media creator. Widely-shared skepticism for the technology has not dissuaded some artists from exploring it as a tool, and upskilling with AI prompting in order to stay ahead of the curve.
Boston 2D and 3D digital artist Jamaal Simmons, self-identified as Jamsketch, began exploring generative AI programs five years ago while working for the former video game developer, Harmonix Music Systems.
“I remember going into Slack, and showing the other artists on the art team this video, then I saw them talking about a Dall-E.” Jamsketch continued, “Dall-E was a new art generator AI model, and there was a waiting list for it. I definitely jumped on, and signed up – I had to check it out for myself; I had to see just how crazy this thing was.”
In 2021, the prominent AI leader and ChatGPT creator, OpenAI, launched a series of text-to-image models under the program name DALL-E. DALL-E’s release preceded the 2023 generative AI boom that provoked discourse in forums, blogs, and news posts of human erasure in creative roles.
Jamsketch and his colleagues were part of the 16% laid off in 2023, about a year after Harmonix’s completed the merger with Fortnite developer, Epic Games. PBS reported the 2023 layoffs of 830 employees by the Fortnite publisher were due to the company’s attempts to offset costs and other factors, while founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said wasn't related to AI.
Recently, CNBC reported that another major tech company Microsoft, laid off 15,000 employees in the span of two months in 2025, while GeekWire shared Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith commentary on their estimated $80 billion AI investments the same year. Microsoft’s CEO, Sayta Nadella, said the shift will automate some of its services to give users more control over their tools.
Large scale layoffs by tech giants continue with Amazon cutting 16,000 employees in January of 2026, according to CNN, with a New York Times report on Meta cuts of around 700 employees in 2026.
“The fact that you could put in words and prompts, and images appear was terrifying, and magical at the same time,” said Jamsketch.
Jamsketch typically illustrates with ubiquitous digital art tools like Photoshop and the 3D sculpting program, Z-Brush, but uses various generative AI engines for animation and video commissions.
“Traditionally, I am a 2D illustrator, and when I do that work, it's me on my computer working digitally in Photoshop, and I don't use AI when I do my digital paintings.”
“I dive into AI when I'm making videos – there might be a dinosaur, or a dragon, or a person who has superpowers – just stuff I cannot pull off on my own.” He continued, “I don't have a studio, cinematographers, and a whole team – that's when AI comes in handy. I could do the cinematic level effects for videos, and photography, but I could spruce up with AI.”
Multimedia artist Angy Morel, 18, of East Boston only dipped her feet in generative AI through a TikTok filter following a 2022 to 2023 trend. The soon-to-be college student in studio arts experiments with various mediums like text tiles, cardboard and digital art programs. Although she has somewhat deemed the technology as “uncreative,” she believes the artist’s imprint on a piece should be distinct.
“I think it depends on how much of the work is actually yours, but I wouldn’t say you’re an artist. This is because even though you are telling AI prompts, AI is not getting their generative information from nowhere – It’s copying what already exists,” continued Morel.
Generative AI's foundation on referencing human media to train the software is a looming threat for some artists. When traditional creative programs like star child, Adobe featured Firefly in its Photoshop tools in 2023, Adobe’s blog had to address the strife among users, who were mainly concerned that their work was included in Adobe Stock that helped train the program. Adobe stated it only uses licensed and permissible data like public domain material with expired copyrights.
“Based on what I see online where people pretend they have made a digital art masterpiece, but they actually just fully generated it with AI,” Morel said. “ I think there is a reason they don't mention it is AI, and that would because they don't feel it's really theirs – it feels stolen.”
She continued, “I don't really have an opinion on people who only use it for some help, because I haven't seen that yet.”
Another Massachusetts’ based contemporary artist, Fernando Fula of Lowell, is a painter with a background in B2B product design. Their use of AI is specialized to building AI systems that support business workflows and decision-making.
“Earlier, it was more experimental testing of what AI could do. Now it’s more intentional, said Fula in an interview. “I use it where it adds speed or clarity. If anything, I’ve become more selective with it over time.”
Fula began experimenting with different forms of AI, but not in congruence with public trends. Fula views its efficiency a potential advantage for artists, although that efficiency has some researchers estimating a steady increase in unemployment.
Goldman Sachs Research forecasts that if labor markets transition into broader AI use, the outcome is a 0.6% percentage point rise in the rate of unemployment over a decade. Goldman Sachs Research team estimated that work tasks that consume up to 25% of work hours could be automated by AI.
“AI is a tool for expanding thought, closing the investigative and labor gaps, not replacing it,” Fula said. “As an artist, I see it as a way to explore directions faster, almost like sketching at the speed of imagination.”
Researchers like Stanford University scholars are currently refining bespoke AI tools for creators to develop a generative AI system that can emulate human-like collaboration with artists, according to the Stanford Report.
“There are a lot of artists who hate it. AI has done a lot of damage to the community, and it still does on every level of art, like actors, singers, songwriters, and musicians,” said Jamsketch. “The way I approach it is I just try not to fear it – I kind of want to get on top of it and make it a tool.”
Writers, illustrators and literary translators from the United Kingdom’s largest union, the Society of Authors responded to a survey with claims that there is a demand for AI use in their work, while some also claimed job loss due to AI. Of the responding 787 members, 22% said they were required to use generative AI in their commissions. About 26% of their illustrators in the survey saw a decline in work due to generative AI, along with over a third who said their work decreased in value since the emergence of generative AI.
“I feel angry that people don't care enough about the harm that generative AI is causing. Not only am I angry that it's taking jobs,” said Morel. “Some even think AI performs better than humans which doesn't make sense, because it's copying what humans have already made.”
Although some companies have denied that the recent layoffs of thousands of employees are directly due to AI automation, Morel does not view generative AI’s nature as anything, but harmful.
“It's dangerous on so many levels – if it can generate anything, it can generate harmful things like child pornography, or trick you into thinking something is real.” She continued, “you can spend hours doing work, but it feels meaningless, because generative AI can do it faster.”
As digital artists acclimate to what others have concluded as a take over, Time Magazine foresees an AI bubble rearing to burst due to overhype. Proof of major companies' heavy investments into AI could be tracked through the surge of AI integrated ads that are pouring into on-screen media. The pushback from many artists and consumers are notable, but artists are strategizing with the perks that generative AI offers them.
“When you already have a good foundation, a good skill set, and then you use AI, cool things come out of it,” said Jamsketch. “It does exist, and it's kinda hard to put the beast back in the cave.”
“I was never apprehensive. Coming from both an art and design/tech background, it felt natural to explore it,”said Fula. “I think the real differentiator isn’t whether you use AI, it's how you use it. Most of my work still requires decision-making, taste, and manual physical execution. AI doesn’t replace that.”
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