“There’s now data to back up what freelancers have been saying for months.
“You can talk to any artist at this point, and they have a story about how they were given AI reference material to work from, or lost a job,” says Southen.
In addition to fewer projects, studios and production companies are cutting the amount of time for which they typically hire artists. What was once a three-to-six-month project is now perhaps a few weeks, and often pays rates far below what is typical, says Southen. He was recently offered a job that included a lot of Al-generated art in its pitch deck already, and the producers offered him half his usual rate to create more.”