We’ve seen some heady debate — which has seemingly accelerated within the last year — in regard to AI and the art world. As a business tool, platforms such as ChatGPT and Jasper are incredibly useful. In fact, Artfinder is already using AI in some ways. Our recommendation model for email uses AI to surface personalised art for subscribers. Similarly, almost all of our performance marketing is somewhat automated, using responsive search ads and predictive analytics. And we readily admit that building all of this manually would require an inconceivable amount of time and energy. So, when it comes to our day-to-day work, we fully embrace utilising AI technology.
But when it comes to creating art, there are a lot of issues around ethics, copyright and how this will affect human art in future.
Indeed, an article published in January 2023 by The Guardian [1] sites an online campaign — #NotoAIArt — raising concerns about AI image generators relying on databases of already existing art scraped from the internet. And while these databases should source from the public domain, copyrighted images being used have already been flagged as an issue by artists.
We’ve also recently read about the German photographer, Boris Eldagsen, refusing a prize from the Sony World Photography awards, following his admittance that the photograph was actually an AI-generated image. Eldagsen claimed his entry was to ultimately question whether the art world was ready for AI-generated art — to which, he concluded, “they are not”.
And while a spokesperson for the World Photography Organisation stated they were already aware of the image being a “co-creation” of AI technology and Eldagsen’s extensive art world experience, it seems to us that we’re still in very patchy territory.
As Edgalsen says, “How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it?” [2]
And all of this so far hasn't even touched on our own team's thoughts and perspectives on AI generated art.
While some of us believe that it simply lacks subjectivity and meaning, others believe that art is an integral part of a bigger historical and cultural whole, and without considering the social and political context of our world, it's not really... art. Some of us think the opposite and believe that AI art is innovative and experimental and are excited to see what happens next. But, when it comes to current art published on the site, Artfinder ultimately champions only original handmade art. We use the word ‘current’ because no-one can predict the future (not even AI!) and who knows where we will be in 2, 5 or 10 years time. For now, AI art = not for Artfinder.
References:
1. “It’s the opposite of art’: why illustrators are furious about AI”, Sarah Shaffi, theguardian.com, 2023
2. “Photographer admits prize-winning image was AI-generated”, Jamie Grierson, theguardian.com, 2023
Image credits: Maria Mitsumori, Craig Robertson, Robert Dutton and Alena Kovalli
