Artificial Intelligence and art: Artalistic’s perspective on assisted creation

New technologies, in particular artificial intelligence, are drastically changing many fields, especially those involving creative processes. How is AI changing the creative universe? What does the future hold for artificial intelligence and art?

Artificial intelligence and art: how will they coexist in the future?

Artificial intelligence is being used in a wide array of fields, and art is no exception. It is becoming so popular among artists that questions about its application are coming to light. The debate surrounding whether or not AI assisted art should be considered art is causing a massive rift.  

The skeptic’s opinion: Changing artistic creation for the negative

Every day, the digital age brings its share of major contributions and changes to everyday life. Artificial intelligence (AI) is capable of collecting and developing digital information to offer new kinds of digital content. Some believe that it is completely removing humans from the creative process.

Artists are being replace by algorithms

The most hash critics are steadfast in their opinion that AI should not be used to create art. They believe that the artist, as we once knew it, is being erased and replaced by technology and that this new blend of artificial intelligence and art will put a complete end to traditional art. The idea that art can be created without the artist seems inconceivable. For them, this way of making art undermines the very essence of creation and the work’s unique qualities. For them, the artist’s hand in creation is what makes it art, using artificial intelligence as a tool negates the artistic process.

By using AI, art becomes a commodity like any other, resulting in a mass-marketed product amid the profusion of things available in our capitalistic world. AI has already made its mark on the publishing industry; some publishing houses have even started releasing books that are completely created by artificial intelligence. Recently, for example, Rie Kudan, winner of Japan's most prestigious literary prize, admitted that around 5% of her novel had been written by ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence software program.

Ruining the creative process

Centuries after the passing of some of the art world’s leading figures, such as Cézanne, Monet and da Vinci, artificial intelligence is able to reproduce iconic paintings in a matter of seconds and invent new ones in the same style used by these great masters. All this is thanks to the power of supercomputers transforming a sequence of 0's and 1's into artwork of astonishing quality.

Man's creativity and imagination no longer seem necessary for creating masterpieces, and that's the problem: artists seem to be becoming obsolete, as they are slowly being replaced by emotionless robots capable of mass-producing countless paintings, sculptures, photographs and things never before dreamed of. The idea that the value of traditional art is being replaced is very frightening indeed. Can art and artificial intelligence be used together to expand the horizon of artistic creation?

Artificial intelligence and art: a positive revolution in the creative sphere

The same cannot be said for fans of artificial intelligence. They see AI as an innovative tool for artists, enabling them to give free rein to their expressive potential.

Infinite possibilities

First argument: artists have been using new technologies to create art long before artificial intelligence existed. Art has always used modern technologies to broaden creative possibilities.  The best example of this is the recent painting by the iconic contemporary artist David Hockney. A year in Normandy (2020) was created using new software on an iPad. All in all, this development seems logical within the flow of history and the times in which we live, a time marked by major technical advances.

Using artificial intelligence to create art opens new doors for experimentation that would be impossible without this new technological medium. A case in point is the artist Refik Anadol’s installation, which uses algorithms to create a constantly changing, self-generated image. The piece collects environmental data in real time to create an immersive, ever-evolving experience for the viewer.

Artificial intelligence and art: a market that’s already lucrative

Artificial intelligence and art have already made a niche for themselves in the art market. Almost every branch of the artworld has been affected by AI, including 3D sculpture and, of course, painting. Some artists use AI-powered digital painting software to create light effects and textures that are impossible to achieve with traditional brushes and tools. For these 3.0 artists, artificial intelligence is in no way a substitute for human creativity, as long as their creative vision is preserved. The German artist Mario Klingemann supports this point of view and uses AI to create digital portraits and landscapes. The American artist Sougwen Chung uses robots with mechanical arms to create drawings and paintings.

Art has always evolved with the appearance of new technologies and artists have always sought to improve their representation of the world, just as the Impressionists in their day decided to work outdoors to capture the essence of their immediate environment. In any case, the use of artificial intelligence in art to broaden our understanding of consciousness is becoming increasingly popular, even if it's clear that machines will never truly replace humans and their cognitive and sensorial capacities.