AI art in the dock

A digital artwork that won an award recently has ignited a debate over the very nature of art.

Recently an AI-generated artwork won an award in the digital category, at the Colorado State Fair. This was met with an outcry from several sections of the artist community, who believed it was unfair since the work was created by a machine. The said artwork was reportedly created using the text-to-image AI generator Midjourney.

Artificial Intelligence art has clearly taken over the internet, flooding social media, piquing interest, leading to all sorts of controversies, and raising issues related to copyright, ownership and originality. For instance, there is also concern that anyone with programming abilities or tech know-how can become an AI artist.

What is AI Art then? Is it just any artwork which is created using Artificial Intelligence? One must remember that this artwork could have been generated through various mechanisms, such as mathematical patterns, algorithms or generative adversarial networks (GAN). Having said that, it must be noted that a human is always involved in the text or engineering prompts to set the system into motion. Algorithms which simulate brush strokes and other qualities of painted effects and surfaces, such as the textures and layers of oil painting effects or the transparency and fluidity of watercolours, are some of the very basic possibilities. AI art can be produced in any format as visuals or audiovisuals, as stills or moving images.

AI has immense possibilities in the creative industry as well and can aid in simplifying lives and in improving creative output — from producing textual content to generating images. The software programs are available commercially and on open-source platforms, democratising the process and enhancing access. It can definitely benefit those that are physically challenged and cannot paint due to physical limitations. DALL-E, Craiyon, and Midjourney AI are some of the options that are available and there are several more that are in the offing.

In general, AI scans millions of images that are available online (royalty-free and otherwise), and stores data regarding specific objects, textures, patterns, marks/lines and colours to generate the image that is closest to the prompts or the defined parameters. Therefore, AI can generate images based on text prompts, it can also write academic papers or stories, or summarise text for you; the possibilities, as I mentioned earlier, are endless.

AI art is not exactly new, in 2018, ‘Edmond de Belamy’ a work created by ‘Obvious’ a Paris-based collective, became the first AI painting to be auctioned at Christie’s, fetching $432,000, a value much higher than its initial estimate. Since then, interest in AI art has grown continuously — as interactive pieces that respond to stimuli in real time, and as collaborative pieces that are combined with illustrations, drawings or paintings.

However, in comparison with traditional art forms, AI is a new area, and while concerns are valid, I think most of these will evolve and streamline with time and AI art will become an important category by itself.

When the camera was invented, there were concerns about whether painting would become redundant, but obviously, that did not happen. If anything, painting remains the most popular and the largest selling form of artwork, by volume, to this day. In my opinion, it is the photographer that creates the award-winning photograph not the piece of equipment. Similarly, the creator is responsible for the art, albeit with some help from Artificial Intelligence.

The author is a Bengaluru-based art consultant, curator and writer. She blogs at Art Scene India and can be reached at [e-mail]

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