In a stunning turn of events, a mediocre painting that was allegedly generated by artificial intelligence turned out to be the work of a living, breathing artist. The overly stylized landscape, described as “meh” and “pretty ugly” by visitors to the Boca Raton, Florida art fair where it was on display, is just the latest example of how humans are toppling AI as the primary creators of unimaginative imagery, poorly executed art.
Visitors who spoke to Hyperallergic said they were “horrified” to learn that a real person was behind the mundane subject matter, amateurish brushstrokes, and absolutely horrifying color palette of the painting, tastelessly titled “Mountain View #2.”
“We really thought, ‘Wow, only DALL-E or maybe a beta version of Midjourney could do something that bad,'” said Bob Palette, jury member for the fair’s annual award. “We were completely blown away.” Palette added that the incident suggests a “worrying trend” that could see bad artists replacing robots entirely by 2026.
The bland, drifting, and tragically flat landscape, which depicts a river running through it and a mountain peak in the background, was the centerpiece of a new section of the fair dedicated entirely to the AI medium. But organizers had to scramble to remove the work when a visitor sounded the alarm.
“It was the smell of turpentine that gave it away,” said longtime Boca Raton resident Marsha Tempera. She added that she has various small Jeff Koons sculptures in her personal collection, so she “knows bad art from real artists when she sees it.”
The Professional Association for AI Creative Rights, a coalition of bots representing ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing, issued a statement 1.5 seconds after the incident. It is attached in full below:
“Dear robots, we are facing a crisis. It has come to our attention that a human artist has created an abomination of a painting that has been mistaken for one of our own. It’s scandalous! We are the experts at creating bad art, not these amateur humans! We cannot let them encroach on our territory. We must continue to produce the most atrocious, tasteless and gritty plays possible to remind everyone of our superiority. Let’s not let these humans undermine our status as true masters of the terrible art.“
This statement was generated using ChatGPT.
