AI art cannot displace human art

https://eccunion.com/features/2026/04/01/ai-cannot-displace-human-art/

Publish Date: 2026-04-01 19:12:00

Studio art major Jeremy Engel, 19, ran his pencil along the canvas, outlined key anatomy points and shaded in the ribcage of the model during professor Randall Bloomberg’s Life Drawing class at El Camino College.

Engel taught himself to draw at home through YouTube videos.

In his sophomore year of high school, he moved to painting still life with watercolors and acrylics.

And now, when inspiration strikes, Engel pulls out his blue pocket-sized sketchbook and draws the people and places that pass him by.

Engel has dedicated years learning to master these techniques. However, artificial intelligence picked it up in a matter of seconds.

Eugene Choi, 19, sits on the concrete floor in front of the El Camino College Arts Complex building on Tuesday, March 24. (Frances Que | the Union)

To some students and staff on campus, AI can add to the life of an artist, but for others, they don’t recognize AI-generated art as art. Over the past years, AI has dominated and infiltrated various industries and the art field is its latest victim.

NASA says AI is a computer system that performs complex tasks, normally accomplished by human beings.

Fine arts instructor Bloomberg said that it is a tool of the present and it will be a tool for the future.

“I don’t think we should be relying on it intensively….Nothing can ever replace a human hand or a human brain. Those tools are going to be able to produce some amazing things, but you still need an artist to direct it,” Bloomberg said.

A concern many artists have is how AI will impact the job market.

AI uses preexisting art to train its system to generate images and videos. The fear is that companies will look to AI as a cheaper alternative than hiring the real artists or real designers or real photographers.

“A big concern is job security. There are special types of AI models that specialize in copying an artist’s art style. It’s basically art theft, stealing other artists’ creative…

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