Most Illustrators and Graphic Designers ‘Damaged’ by AI; and Losing their Careers
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Artificial intelligence continues its path and development, while the leaders of the technological world ask for a pause of at least six months to understand where this new technology is evolving.
While this is happening, there are already some professions that have seen how their employees have begun to be replaced by different tools that use these developments to deliver much faster and cheaper solutions for companies.
In this sense, some companies have realized this situation and have begun to replace human talent with tools that offer better and higher performance. For example, in China, one of the professions that have been most affected is that of illustrators or graphic designers.
According to the local press, Amber Yu, a local designer, charged between 400 and 950 euros for making a graphic piece for video games. Her time was gold; however, she spent almost a week on each illustration, while she made the sketches in Photoshop and then finished and polished them with other specialized programs.
According to the Genbeta portal, which collected the testimony of Leo Li, in charge of hiring personnel at a video game company in China, this profession has been affected since last year; the professional explained that the number of positions allocated to this trade has been reduced by 70%.
This is due to two important factors: the first, the use of artificial intelligence for the development of this industry, and the second, the regulation that only allows those under 18 years of age to play consoles for one hour a day on weekends, with which it was sought to prevent addiction to video games.
A Rest of World report ensures that in the Asian giant, both the powerful in this industry and the small producers of titles for consoles have not hesitated to replace illustrators with artificial intelligence tools for the creation of their characters, plots, scenarios, or other material that they disseminate on social networks.
Another testimony given by Xu Yingying, an illustrator for this industry in the city of Chongqing, confirmed that 15 of the workers in his studio lost their jobs because clients chose to use different artificial intelligence imaging programs.
“Two people can do the job that ten people used to do,” Yingying said. Likewise, it is estimated that in one day, such an artist could design a character or recreate a scene, while technology now allows for 40 per day, which marks a noticeable difference between machines and humans.
Voice Actors have Also been Affected
This is the case of an Argentinean announcer and dubbing actor who shared his story and warned that his work had been replaced by an AI tool.
The person affected was Alejandro Graue, a 36-year-old man who during the last months of 2022 worked to dub the videos of a YouTube channel for Latin America; however, he was left waiting for his renewal for 2023.
When he wanted to find out why he was not called to continue, he found no explanation. However, when he saw one of the videos that he used to dub, he realized that the clip had been dubbed by an artificial intelligence tool.
“I play it, and instead of throwing myself out, I hear a very long, very correct voice saying: Hello, welcome, this is a new video…’, and so a horrible, robotic voice continues, out of sync,” said the Argentine actor.
When he wanted to start a dialogue with his bosses again, they explained to him that a tool based on artificial intelligence had replaced him at the client’s request, the affected person told Radio con Vos, a program on a local station.
In that same program, he warned that he had found out that, if the essay went perfectly, the company he worked for was not only not going to hire him again but was going to fire the other colleagues who were in charge of the tests. other dubbing, and the rest of the production team.
“For those who ask me, it is independent work from a company that obviously only seeks to optimize costs; it does not care about the artistic result. As with TikTok videos, a monotonous voice is heard, without changes in rhythm, emotions, etc., but there it is, as explained by the actor on his Twitter account.
“I still think that what has to do with the artistic, with the communicational, when it has to do with nuances and intentions, that is what is human. Some comments on the video said that it was not understood and asked what had happened to the other voice, which was obviously lacking in feeling, “he added.
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