Artificial intelligence is one of the biggest buzzwords in the tech world right now. From excitement about ChatGPT writing people’s wedding vows to concern about AI potentially taking jobs away from people, AI has impacted everything and the NFT space is not exempt.
In recent months, NFT makers have increasingly moved into the AI scene, with some rather interesting projects emerging from this experiment. However, will the inclusion of AI in the NFT space benefit the industry? Or does it create a problematic landscape that can negatively impact NFTs as a whole?
AI in NFTs
One of the most interesting applications of AI has been in generative content creation. In fact, it is this aspect that may have gained prominence on the Internet. People have used AI to generate songs, wedding vows, emails, photos and much more. It has revealed the potential of artificial creativity and sparked controversy.
It has, of course, made its way into the NFT space as well. As most of us know, NFTs are often used as a way to document and monetize content. The most expensive NFT ever sold was artwork by the artist Beeple, and when you think about the biggest NFT collections like the Bored Apes and Doodles, they are essentially collectible art.
This art is usually created by trained artists and creatives, but AI has helped lower the barrier to entry. Instead of having to create the NFT art from scratch, entrepreneurs can have an AI generate the art based on prompts and then tokenize it as a digital asset. This has created an entire submarket of AI-generated NFT content, such as art, audio, and so on.
In addition to creating NFTs themselves, AI also plays a role in the business aspect of the industry. You see, just as AI can create content, AI can also be used to verify whether certain content is human-created or not. This has been done with images, articles and much more.
While AI has created a market of artists who are outspoken about their work being created by a machine, some are not. There have even been cases where people made copies of someone else’s work via AI and tried to pass it off as the real thing. However, AI detection software can usually distinguish counterfeits from genuine.
Is this good?
With the use cases it has secured in a short period of time, it’s safe to say that AI will continue to operate in the NFT space for some time to come, but is this a good thing?
As with anything else, there are pros and cons. On the one hand, AI-generated content tools lower the barrier to entry and allow more people to enter the NFT space. With that comes more financial benefits for entrepreneurs, but more competition for creators, and the use of AI to essentially plagiarize NFT content cannot be overlooked.
However, as we’ve also seen, AI can be used to prevent counterfeiting within the NFT space, which was already a problem before AI even became popular in the industry. If managed well, the opportunities for AI can benefit the NFT space. For example, marketplaces and prominent platforms could set up systems to ensure buyers are properly informed as to whether the NFTs they are purchasing are AI-generated or not.
This transparency would allow the nascent AI-generated NFT market to flourish, while giving consumers a choice in this matter. In addition, proper controls to deter any AI-driven counterfeiting would be a net positive for NFT buyers and makers. Those who want to buy or sell AI-generated NFTs can do so freely and those who want human-made works can do the same. There has been debate about which type of art has more intrinsic value, but in the end we can only let the markets decide.
However, a situation where AI’s influence is left unfettered would only do the opposite; create a marketplace run amok by counterfeiting, misinformed consumers, and ultimately resentment among creators.
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Image credit via: Deep AI
*All NFT Plazas investment/financial opinions are derived from the personal research and experience of our site moderators and are intended as educational material only. Individuals are required to fully research each product before making any kind of investment.