AI can create art work, without the humanity
Iwas sitting in the auditorium of the Asia Society in Manhattan on October 28 being thoroughly amazed by the possibilities new technology offers to arts and culture. What was taking place on stage was the “ChinaUS Culture Investment Forum,” a half-day event hosted jointly by the Asia Society and the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation. Many experts from the fields of art and technology from China and the US shared their initiatives and insights on how the combination of the two can benefit humanity.
Even in the shadow of a trade war, people-to-people exchanges between China and the US seem to be flourishing like never before. And this forum seemed best suited – the US is the leader in digital technology and China may soon overtake it, and both countries have a firm commitment to preserving and promoting their arts and culture. To someone like me who understands the nuances of arts and culture but is tone deaf when it comes to technology, the forum was an eye-opener.
There was Cheng Wu, vice president of Tencent, talking about digitalizing the
Dunhuang murals, preserving traditional music that was composed and performed thousands of years ago, and introducing them to young people via the internet.
There was Qin Yi, special assistant to the director of the School of Creativity and Art at ShanghaiTech University, talking about creators of apps at the school who can convert the songs of your favorite singer into a live concert with help of virtual reality.
There was Zachary Kaplan, executive director of Rhizome, an organization that promotes digital arts, talking about the first-of-its-kind virtual reality exhibition it launched last year with the New Museum. And there were Mia Yoo and Billy Clark, artists from La MaMa, talking about their efforts of rejuvenating the 57-year-old Broadway theater through the internet.
The atmosphere was harmonious with the experts saluting the unlimited possibilities high tech can bring to arts and culture, and the audience mesmerized. That is until an audience member asked a down-to-the-point question – an AI-generated art work was sold for more than $400,000 recently at Christie’s, what does everyone think about it?
The work, a blurry portrait called “Edmond de Belamy, from La Famille de Belamy,” was created by the French art collective Obvious with a technology called Generative Adversarial Networks. Seven minutes after the bidding started, it went to an anonymous telephone bidder for $432,500, 45 times its high estimate, and almost six times an Andy Warhol print that hung nearby in the same auction.
This was the first time an algorithm-generated art work was sold by an auction house. While tech-minded people hailed the outcome, many artists frowned upon it. The division was visible at the forum too.
“As an artist, I think it’s scary,” said Yoo from La MaMa. She said art should reflect humanity, and questioned the presence of humanity in AI-generated works. Clark reminded the audience that AI generating art can make the art world further succumb to the capital markets because corporations can easily replicate them. He added that now AI can write plays in Shakespearean style but the stories make no sense. Qin, clearly a cheerleader for robot artists, said AI has already been involved in art for a few years. Turning to Clark, she said: “Don’t want to scare you more but engineers are training AI to learn to think in human logic”.
I am generally wary of high tech (being tone deaf to it, that may be a defense mechanism). I have no doubt that if humans are not sufficiently alert, a day will come when AI will grab hold of the art world. Robots have already been stealing jobs and the practice will become more rampant as it progresses through more fields. But I think for now, if there is any profession that doesn’t have to worry too much about AI, it is art.
Art’s production and consumption processes are different from other products. Efficiency, precision and low cost – these advantages of algorithms may decide if robots will eventually replace human beings in most other industries. But these are not the most important factors in the creation of art.
Both the inspiration for art and the values they illuminate are tied closely to life experiences, tastes and moods of individual artists and consumers. An artist may create a work that no one is able to understand for many years, and a consumer can spend millions on a piece others think is not even art.
AI might quickly learn to think like humans and produce art that makes sense. But even if more robots succeed in producing art, human artists will not be replaced.
But of course, auctions can make an art work more important than its aesthetic meaning. That’s why British graffiti artist Banksy’s “Girl With Balloon” is now worth more than its $1.4 million after it was shredded in front of stunned viewers at an auction at Sotheby’s. For the same reason an AI-generated work can sell at a higher price than an Andy Warhol.
But such stunts work only once. Aspiring robot artists may have to be prepared for a cold reaction from the audience in the future. And Banksy will know not to shred another painting.
The author is a New York-based journalist. rong_xiaoqing@hotmail.com