The AI Art Paradigm: Disruptions in the Digital Art Ecosystem and Future Trends

Art has been integral to human life and evolution since the dawn of time, merging creativity with technological advances. In today's digital art domain, generative AI models such as text-to-image generators create high-quality art in seconds, challenging the current digital art ecosystem. Human artists fear displacement. Consumers and galleries criticize AI art. Policies and legal laws continue to address AI art's ethical, social, and economic implications. Anti-AI groups see AI art as a threat to anthropocentric worldviews. This systematic literature review explored different dimensions of AI art across the digital art ecosystem by understanding its negative disruptions (RQ1) and positive impacts and trends (RQ2). Through 38 yielded publications, the thematic analysis revealed four major negative disruptions: 1) ethical complications, 2) legal issues, 3) socio-cultural risks, and 4) technological challenges; and three positive trends: 1) increased human and non-human collaboration, 2) image generators primarily applied as creative tools, and 3) socio, technical, and legal changes. This empirical research deepens understanding of AI art and image generators’ impacts and highlights potential research and development directions.