Ethical Implications of AI-Generated Art
rules have been followed (note again that the distinction breaks down: unless one has access to the code of the machine, the product is evaluated by process). For instance, if a drawing is made according to the rules of good portrait drawing, and if one assumes that there are such rules and that they can be formalized, then there is no barrier to calling that drawing a work of art. 10 However, others yet believe that art has no objective criteria. There are no, by this view, necessary qualities that determine a work as artwork . Art is whatever we decide to call art. Coeckelbergh elaborates on the consequences if we use subjective criteria to define art. Using subjectivity as a model makes stronger the case that AI- generated images are, indeed artwork; if art is centered around fundamentally subjective criteria, then anything, including images generated by an artificial intelligence, could qualify as art: [I]f there are only subjective criteria, it seems that the machine gets an even better chance to be seen as an artist having created a work of art. If the only thing that counts is subjective decision or social agreement, then if these are in place, this is all the machine needs. If what constitutes art is open, then it may also be open as to whether machines could join the community of artists. For instance, if a neural network creates something we (humans) call art, then it is art—end of the matter; the artistic status of the product is clear. 11 Further, if it is the case that artificial intelligence cannot compete with the acumen of artists, how is this at all problematic? It seems like a common argument that artistic products brought about by artificial intelligence are inferior, nowhere near human craftsmanship. So, if these images categorically do not represent art, then traditional artists should have nothing to worry about. That, however, is not the case. Rather, artists are alarmed at the presence of AI in their profession, claiming it represents a unique threat to their livelihood and trade. The next argument is that the images generated by artificial intelligence are not art because these programs simply mimic the work that humans have already made. This would, indeed, present a significant problem if it were true. When artificial intelligence generates art, it analyzes internet images, generating a final
10 Mark Coeckelbergh, “Can Machines Create Art?,” Philosophy & Technology 30, no. 3 (September 24, 2016): 292–93, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-016-0231-5. 11 Coeckelbergh, “Can Machines Create Art?”
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