Artificial Intelligence and Art – An Experiment in Creativity

• AI has proven itself time and again as a powerful tool, with a surplus of uses, but what about art? Recent experiments are showing some surprising results.

Can Artificial Intelligence Truly Create Art?
Artificial Intelligence, is something we have generally all come to recognize as a term, being an important part, if nothing else, in much of the technology we have come to utilise in everyday life. It is also, however, commonly not very well understood, something that Professor Marcus du Satouy, an Oxford mathematician who hosted a musical AI exhibition in London, quickly discovered.

With the average person having limited knowledge, or serious interest, in the complexities of AI, and often also in“fine art” for that matter, this is not surprising. Studies have shown that most people tend to either underestimate or vastly overestimate the ability of AI, including its own creators at times, but it is they who, naturally understand it’s limitations and potential the best.

The painting son sale at a Christie’s auction in 2019 were noted as “not the product of a human mind,” and “created by artificial intelligence, an algorithm defined by [an] algebraic formula.” in their previews. One of the paintings though, titled “Portrait of Edmond Belamy”, sold for $432,500, becoming the first AI-created painting ever to be sold by the high profile auction house.

Since then, the instances in which artificial intelligence has produced surprisingly, and of course, arguably, decent looking artwork has been frequent, and yet, the question still remains. Is it art?

Many would argue that it’s the “human” element that usually gives art its special meaning and value, and not just visual appeal. But what if that portion of the audience that requires the human element, the art critics, and experts, and even the creators, can be successfully duped?  This is a question that, after fifty years of work on the subject, has still yet to be adequately answered, although over the past decades, has become steadily more and more relevant. And a point is closing in, perhaps not long off, where it could actually happen.

What most AI experts and creators of art-rendering AI can generally agree on though, is that, whatever the case, like practically every other type of technology humans have created, AI is first and foremost, a tool. Therefore, in terms of art, it can be considered more like the paintbrush than the painter. Furthermore, it will likely remain relatively machine-like and predictable in its thinking for the foreseeable future. This means that any perceived sense of genuine creativity in AI art, at the present time at least, is simply an illusion, created through mimicry and generalization by the AI in regard to what it has been shown and instructed to do.

Something else worth keeping in mind though, is that art is sufficiently broad to easily included autonomous AI artwork, and without ever diminishing the value of human artists. Rather, hand-rendered human art will likely only continue to increase in value, as it has been, and digital artists who a lo enjoy the apuestas deportivas Chile offers will likely have yet another, even more versatile and creative tool at their disposal. Eventually though, it is likely that AI will become so useful, that it will be an inseparable and valued extensions of our ourselves and everyday life, enabling us to achieve things far beyond the span of our ordinary reach.