Ronit Wolf: Why Does an Illustrator Use AI-Generated Images?

You have dealt intensively with artificial intelligence by illustrating your children's book. What have you learned in the process?

The biggest learning for me is that I still do the input. I program the AI according to my personal ideas. I press the buttons and enter the prompts. It's a tool and partner in crime to get my results. It has given me an incredible creative boost and I have been able to find new ways of expression for my own work. When you go through an artistic transformation with a well-established team that you trust, it's similar. These new possibilities were important because I wanted something special for my children's book, I wanted a children's book that kids would want to buy themselves – simply because it's crazy and colorful. Children don't yet have this categorical way of thinking about what's in and out or right and wrong - they decide according to their feelings and not according to the advertising industry.

What about copyright in relation to your AI-generated illustrations? Are you afraid that your work will be copied?

No, I'm not afraid of that. I've lived in Munich for eleven years and have been copied many times, not least by the Science & Fiction Festival. I organized the festival here in Munich for almost a decade and now see similar formats all over the city. As an artist, you learn from other artists and take inspiration from them. When I think back to my own student days, I also copied works by Egon Schiele or Oskar Kokoschka, for example. As the saying goes: “Imitation is the highest form of recognition.”

Some people are even afraid of AI. Can your work help them to understand the topic?

My book is a small contribution to sensitizing children to the fact that it is possible to create good things with AI. I work with young people in art education and I always see that prejudices and fear are only fueled by the adult world. Awakening curiosity and interest, on the other hand, should be a task that you constantly face in life. That makes dealing with AI easier.

“At its best, art has an inspiring and enlightening effect on society,” you once said. Do you think AI-generated images can achieve this?

They do: I have rarely seen so many people creating images as I do now. The fact that people who can't paint, draw or storyboard are suddenly able to visualize their ideas is great. New inspiration is coming from different backgrounds that you would never have seen without generative AI. In my opinion, enlightenment always goes hand in hand with competition. Because people want to become better, they are interested in how something was done.