Milwaukee (CBS 58) — What is art, and is art created by artificial intelligence still considered art?
“We’re waiting for the moment when we can put something out there and put our stamp on it,” said Jerry Canavan, dean of the English Department at Marquette University.
Various forms and styles of art transcend language and are known to evoke all kinds of emotions.
CBS 58 News asked both traditional and so-called “contemporary” artists to define art.
“Art is me, art is them. Art is us. If you have the ability and the desire, art is a way to express yourself as a person,” says multidisciplinary artist Annamarie Edwards. said.
“Art is about exploring what it means to be human, and art is a way of collectively sharing and trying to deal with our situation,” says AI artist Pepin Lachans. said.
Milwaukee-area illustrator Julian Roberson added, “I think it’s an expression in a way … people’s determination to create something.”
None of the answers contain the words “people” and “humans”, but they are clearly not artificial intelligence.
Canavan said he does a lot of research on AI and is fascinated by science fiction becoming reality.
“It doesn’t think, it just generates what looks like an answer, so it doesn’t really care if that answer is true or false, just if it looks like an answer,” he explained.
CBS 58 News devised a task to compare human and robot responses.
After about 25 minutes, Roberson and Edwards presented their draft.
“I think love is a difficult thing and I think it breaks a lot of boundaries. Yes,’ said Edwards.
“He’s a bit of a heart monster,” Roberson explained. “I kind of carry love around and I think it’s all around you.”
LaChance, on the other hand, came up with a design on his phone in less than five minutes.
“I’m thinking about ‘dynamic love,'” he said, typing keywords.
“It’s a man with a heart in his eyes, oh look, it’s getting more and more abstract, it’s so cool, ’cause that’s the question, love is an emotion, isn’t it? I don’t have one, so sometimes I’m not going to use that final image, but I wanted to use it as an input because I wanted to put variations and colors in it,” he added.
AI can mimic human activity, but it literally needs a human element to draw ideas.
“We are building these robots,” Roberson said. “At the end of the day, I think they should always be designed to work for us and not work against us.”
Ever since artificial intelligence became a hot topic, Roberson says it’s a natural fear.
“It’s making people confused about who’s making what, etc., and it’s just making the already very messy world of social media even more messy, and that’s making me furious,” he said. rice field.
So is AI-generated art, or AI-powered art, well, art?
Edwards says he feels AI art lacks credibility and hinders human creativity.
“I think AI gives an expectation that artists have to over-create and adapt,” she says.
Lachans said he has been manipulating images for years and sees artificial intelligence as a great tool to enhance human creativity.
“So what is creativity? You know, where does it come from? Right? We’re all just remixing things in a way, aren’t we? We’re all giants.” I understand their point of view, you know, ‘That’s it,’ he said.
“This world needs more art, and this world needs more people who allow themselves to be artists,” Lachanse said.
Especially for people with disabilities like him.
“Sometimes I couldn’t get out of bed, but it was my only window. It was a world I could explore,” he said.
Lachan has been suffering from a long-term COVID-19 infection. AI art is a coping mechanism he shares with his children, acting as an escape from reality.
“When I was out of breath and panicked, it gave me something to focus on. It allowed me to express my anger and sadness and connect with others on Twitter.” he added.
LaChance said he has created more than 30,000 works of art using AI apps.
But Roberson is now rethinking what he shares online.
“I just don’t want to put too much effort into being prepared for them to take something from you,” he said.
Even Edwards got a little emotional when asked if he thought robots would devalue his profession.
“Our work is more expensive than usual, it takes longer than usual, and I’m not a computer, so I can’t do that, and it’s frustrating how I’m going to continue my career as an artist.” Traditional shape? asked Edwards.
