Welcome to Art Angle, an Artnet News podcast that dives into the places where the art world meets the real world, bringing each week’s biggest story to earth. Join us each week for an in-depth look at what matters most in museums, the art market and more, with input from our own writers and editors, as well as artists, curators and diners. other leading experts in the field.
When artificial intelligence arrived in the art world in 2017, it was welcomed warmly and with open arms. AI-generated works by artists like Obvious and Mario Klingemann sold for hundreds of thousands at auction, art fairs like Scope in Miami welcomed AI art, as did institutions , who eagerly organized exhibitions touting new technologies. Artists working with AI were welcomed; there was no media outrage or backlash – the AI art, on the whole, was seen as a good thing.
Not so much today. The latest chapter in AI art history has seen artists speak out against the tool’s widespread use and its violation of creators’ rights, with the artwork generated sparking outrage online and off. line. More recently, a handful of industry leaders have even warned of the extinction-level threat of AI.
So what has changed? Why has the art of AI fallen out of favor? This is exactly what the pioneering AI artist and innovator Ahmed Elgammal discuss in a new editorial for Artnet News.
Inasmuch as AI researcherprofessor in the computer science department at Rutgers University, founder of the AI Art Platform Playformand the developer of AICAN—one of the first art generators—Elgammal is well placed to observe the trajectory of AI art. According to him, the gap between the AI era of yesterday and today is due to one thing: the emergence of text-to-image generators. He argues that while these new generators made art generation child’s play, they flouted ethical considerations and effectively killed creativity.
To further his argument, Artnet News’ art and pop culture editor Min Chen sat down with Elgammal to learn more about the state of AI art – why early AI arts took off, how text prompting diminished the creative process, and where artists wanting to work with AI should go from here.
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