The AI Art Explosion & March NFT Highlights

Google Search Interest for AI Art has grown >13x in a year

Teng Yan

Apr 9, 2023

March saw a relatively quiet period for NFTs, compared to the frenzy of activity in January and February. Although there was no groundbreaking new "meta" (like Ordinals or Open Editions), several noteworthy developments took place throughout the month.

One of the most significant disappointments was Meta's decision to shut down its NFT feature on Instagram. IMO, it’s a missed opportunity for the social media platform.

Some speculate that Meta experimented with NFTs as a means to bypass Apple's 30% in-app purchase fees, but ultimately abandoned the idea when it became clear it wouldn't work. Instead, Meta has chosen to focus on enhancing its Reels feature to boost user engagement and monetization.

The NFT market also experienced an existential crisis, with several "blue-chip" NFT collections witnessing a sharp decline in value during March. Moonbirds, Clone X, and Doodles, once valued at 10 - 30 ETH, now have floor prices below 3 ETH each (a 90% drop in some cases). This begs the question: Are NFTs merely altcoins with pictures, as @Cobie suggests? I'll delve deeper into this topic in an upcoming blog post. TL;dr — the answer is no.

Despite these challenges, several NFT projects have found success through real-world business partnerships. It’s a very positive signal, showing how traditional businesses are finding value in experimenting with NFTs

@pudgypenguins toys go on sale at stores
Cool Cats will be on Macy's shelves
Gucci enters into a multi-year partnership with Yuga Labs

The gaming industry, in particular, experienced a fruitful month. South Korea's largest game publisher, Nexon, announced that its iconic MapleStory game would venture into Web3 with an NFT-centric game on the Polygon platform. With over 50 million player accounts with more than a decade of activity, MapleStory is a classic in the gaming world.

Korea + Web3 games seem to have a natural product-market fit, as the country's consumers are often considered more "degenerate" and drawn to games with higher risk/reward ratios.

Introducing NFTs to gaming makes perfect sense, except for one major obstacle: the South Korean government has enacted laws banning play-to-earn (P2E) and NFT games in the country.

As we watch for Korean gaming studios building blockchain games and launching them abroad, I can't help but wonder when these regulations might change to allow for easier access within the country itself. I will be watching closely for this change.

AI Art thrives

Lately, I've been captivated by the advancements in general-purpose AI, particularly with technologies like GPT-4, ChatGPT, and Google's Bard. The more I learn, the more I'm convinced that AI represents a monumental shift that could impact our lives in unimaginable ways.

One area where AI is making waves is in the world of digital art. AI-generated art is emerging as a defining medium in this digital revolution. Currently valued at around $75 million, the AI art industry has the potential to grow exponentially, surpassing $10 billion in the not-so-distant future

If you need any proof of the growing interest in AI art, just look at the Google search trends for the term over the past year (above). Interest in AI art is now 13 times greater than it was a year ago, and the upward trajectory shows no signs of slowing down.

There's something both fascinating and enchanting about the unpredictable nature of AI-generated art. The ability of AI algorithms to disregard the constraints of physical reality opens up an entirely new realm of creative possibilities.

I've shared some of my thoughts on this phenomenon and how it relates to NFTs in a couple of tweet threads, which serve as a preview of the more in-depth research reports I've produced as part of my work at Delphi.

On Braindrops, the “Art Blocks” for AI art:

Teng Yan ⛩ @0xPrismatic

@braindrops_art is a launchpad for AI-generated art. It works with AI artists and provides them with the tools to mint and sell their work to collectors.

On Botto, a decentralised AI artist:

Teng Yan ⛩ @0xPrismatic

AI art has been booming, with some NFTs selling for 5-digit sums. It's a $75M industry today that could easily expand to $10B+ One AI project especially caught my eye. Here's why: (1/14)

I’ve been working on a couple of longer-form blog posts around mental frameworks for thinking about NFTs, fungibility vs non-fungibility and other personal musings. Hope to be publishing at least one of these this month — stay tuned.

Meanwhile, wishing you a wonderful April ahead!

Cheers,

Teng Yan

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You can find and DM me on Twitter (@0xPrismatic). I love getting your feedback.