You can’t go anywhere online without seeing articles talking about artificial intelligence or content and images created with AI tools such as DALL-E 3 or Starry.ai. The question looming for many of us who create digital products using AI is this:
What are the best practices for using AI to create digital products?
It’s an important question to ask and a potentially tricky one to answer. We’re at a time when the AI landscape is shifting under our feet. We’ve outlined some best practices for where we are, and at the end, we’ll provide some tips to help you keep up with where we think AI might go in the future.
Best Practice #1: Choose Your AI Image Tools Wisely—and Learn How to Use Them
One of the biggest roadblocks that can prevent you from creating professional-looking (and sellable) images generated by AI is a lack of knowledge about the tools you use to create images. Some of them are easier to learn than others, so it’s important to play around and get to know them before you create images to sell.
Some tools (think Canva) are easier to use than others. If you’re not willing to spend a lot of time fiddling around with features to determine how to get the best images possible, then you might want to stick with tools with simple interfaces.
Best Practice #2: Fine-Tune Your Prompts
AI image generation tools are only as good as the information you give them. There are two types of prompts: text and visual. With a text prompt, you’ll write a description of the image you want. You’ll need to be specific and keep in mind that most AI tools are extremely literal in their understanding of text. With an image prompt, you’ll supply an “inspiration image” for the AI tool to use.
If you’ve got a specific style in mind, it’s worthwhile to spend some time training the AI tool you choose. For example, DALL-E 3, from OpenAI, will remember your prompts, meaning you can get to a point where you’re happy with the style or color palette and use it many times.
Best Practice #3: Use Your AI-Generated Image as a Starting Point
There are a lot of people using AI tools to create images, so it’s essential not to simply copy and paste an image created by AI and put it on your products. Instead, you’ll need to take the image AI gives you and refine it. There are two ways to do it.
- Refine your prompts to fine-tune the image and make it your own; or
- Use image editing software (which may be included in the AI tool you’re working with) to filter, crop, and otherwise alter the image.
Editing is necessary because, as much as you might like to think you’ve dreamed up a unique image, the chances are high that someone else has requested the same thing from the same generator.
Best Practice #4: Check Your Images for Copyright Infringement
After you’ve edited your AI-generated image, you’ll need to check it for similarities to copyrighted images on the web. This step is especially important if you’ve used an image that isn’t yours as part of your prompt. The issue of copyright is murky when it comes to AI images. Who owns them? You’ll need to make sure that your images are unique.
One of the best ways to check for issues with your images is to put the image into Google and do a reverse image search. Google Lens is the app you can use to do that. If your image is too similar to something that’s protected, then you should alter and edit it until it’s far enough away from the original for you to sell.
Best Practice #5: Add a Watermark or Overlay to Your Image
When you’re listing AI-generated images for sale, you can protect your images by adding a watermark with your brand or store name on it. A lot of Etsy sellers take this step, and we recommend it. It makes it more difficult—although not impossible—for someone to simply copy your image and resell it.
There are tons of tools you can use to add branding to your images. Canva is a notable example. Once you’ve figured out the placement of your logo or store name, you can simply create a copy of one image, drag your new image into it, and replace the background before saving it.
Best Practice #6: Stay Abreast of New Developments in AI
We’re not saying you need to become an expert on the technical aspects of AI. However, it is a good idea to read articles and stay on top of what’s happening with AI image generation and the rules around it.
Best practices are determined by where we are with AI, and they could change. One example is copyright, which is—as noted above—a frontier that AI hasn’t yet navigated. It’s likely that ownership of AI-generated images will be a topic of conversation going forward, and you won’t want to be caught by surprise when it happens.
Where Is AI Headed?
It’s amazing to think about how commonplace the use of AI has become in just a few years. We can’t say exactly where it’s headed, but here are a few possibilities to keep in mind.
- Ethical AI. We expect there’ll be an increasing demand for regulation of AI, especially given that photorealism is a trend that we’re seeing in 2024. This has already been a topic of discussion in Hollywood, where actors are concerned that their voices and images may be used without permission.
- Copyright and ownership. As we’ve already mentioned, ownership of AI-generated images could become a hot topic in the future, which is why it’s so important to make the images you generate unique.
- Dynamic content creation. There’s a strong likelihood that AI prompts will evolve to incorporate clues that go beyond text and images. Some experts predict that it won’t be long before AI can respond to environmental cues as well.
- AI-driven creativity. Finally, it’s likely that the editing and image generation tools available will soar to new heights. AI may be able to suggest fonts, color palettes, and other features to improve the quality of the images it generates.
The takeaway here is that the future of AI is likely to be exciting and unexpected. Staying on top of trends is a must, since changes may impact the way you use AI to create images to sell.
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