Rather than resist AI art, Asia is embracing its future

Like it or not, Christie’s “Augmented Intelligence” sale, which runs on to March 5, marks a major milestone in the world of art. It is the first time a major auction house is selling an entire art collection created with artificial intelligence (AI).

Major auction houses have dabbled in AI art in the past. In 2018, Christie’s auctioned Edmond de Belamy, a portrait of a blurry male figure generated by an algorithm, for US$432,500. Last year, A.I. God, a portrait of English mathematician Alan Turing created by robot artist Ai-Da, went for US$1.32 million.

The role of art is changing and auction houses offering AI art is merely a reflection of how much the technology has proliferated in our lives. But not everyone agrees.

An open letter from artists around the world calling on Christie’s to cancel its AI art auction has garnered more than 6,400 signatures, arguing that AI models are trained on copyrighted work and therefore exploit human artists. Similarly, thousands of musicians, artists, authors and journalists are protesting against planned changes to UK copyright law that could make it easier for AI companies to exploit copyrighted work.

Critics argue that AI art is a form of theft and exploitation. There is also a debate over whether AI can really be considered a powerhouse of original creativity and if AI art would debilitate the creations of human artists.

For all the angst, it’s not all a lost cause. For the last several years, artists, especially in Asia, have been finding novel ways to deploy AI to better their art.

  

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