Christmas markets risk losing their charm to AI-generated artwork

The smell of mulled wine drifting through the air, people munching on churros and mince pies, classic Christmas tunes blaring out over speakers, and... as I found, AI-generated artwork being sold at a high price.

My experience of Christmas markets is limited to those held in my hometown every year, where smaller independent businesses showcase their very own products.

It’s usually a great place to pick up unique presents for loved ones and support local traders.

My expectations for London's Christmas markets were much higher, but I anticipated a similar sort of set-up.

Imagine my surprise when I walked around multiple markets and discovered, in fact, that there was little originality in the products being sold, and that AI artwork was being sold to unsuspecting visitors and tourists.

One stall that sold only artwork had a mixture of what looked to be low-quality rip-offs from other artists and work that had all the hallmarks of an AI piece.

I asked the vendor where he got his art from and he said it comes from an unnamed “supplier.” Some of the prints I looked at seemed pixelated and, to my eye, could have simply been just printed out from a photo online.

For the price of just £12 for a small poster or £16 for a large poster, you could have your very own 'work of art' that has every chance of being a printout off the internet.

One print I saw was exactly the same as one that had been advertised to me on social media by the actual artist.

However, the AI artwork was the most egregious in my mind.

If you didn’t look too closely, you wouldn’t know that you’re looking at something that wasn’t created by a human.

A print showing a plate of spaghetti, a glass of wine, and a bowl of tomatoes had a lovely summery vibe to it.

But, upon closer inspection, you’ll begin to see the cracks.

There are three forks beside the plate - one of them is barely visible, but the other two have twisted and merged together to create a single fork that absolutely nobody could successfully use to eat any kind of meal, let alone spaghetti.

Perhaps I’m being a bit too harsh, surrealism is a popular artistic movement, yet somehow I doubt that was the intention behind this piece.

Whilst browsing, I witnessed several people buying something from the stall, so clearly, people didn't seem to mind that the pieces on display weren't original or of very good quality.

There is a great divide among those who embrace AI-generated art and those who view it as an affront to creativity.

A community on Reddit dedicated to AI art has 650,000 members sharing art they have created using generative AI.

This includes photos of Donald Trump wearing make-up, reimagined portraits of Lord of the Rings characters, and a selfie taken by a Greek statue and Medusa.

One Facebook group called Artists Against Generative AI has racked up more than 209,000 members who share their own original creations and fan art of popular film characters.

The organisers behind the Vault Christmas Market in Belfast banned AI-generated art or products created with artificial intelligence this year in response to the impact that it has on the livelihoods of artists and other creatives.

Vault Artist Studios wrote on social media: "We believe in Art and we believe in our makers, designers, artisans, craftspeople and creatives to construct beauty with their hands and minds and not through prompting machines run by people who are hell bent on flooding the world with horrible slop and misinformation."

Who knows whether more Christmas markets will follow in the footsteps of Vault Artist Studios next year but if they did, it might bring the charm back into the season.

I, for one, won't be going back until we can see some more authentic offerings on sale at Christmas markets.