AI is Invading the Visual Arts

Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms can create original art, blurring the line between machine and artist. 

Artificial Intelligence Creative Adversarial Network (AICAN) is an artificial intelligence software developed in 2017 by Dr. Ahmed Elgammal of Rutgers University, which is creating unique artwork free from human intervention. 

AICAN can develop images for originality by cross-referencing it to the aesthetics of previous eras, thus enabling AICAN to generate original artwork without human intervention, according to Elgammal for Smithsonian Magazine. 

AICAN draws from the curation of more than 100,000 images representative of the Western art canon over the past five centuries. AICAN is modeled after psychological theories of the brain’s response to aesthetics via the influence of human artists. 

“But it’s not just about the final image. It’s about the creative process—one that involves an artist and a machine collaborating to explore new visual forms in revolutionary ways,” said Elgammal from the Smithsonian Magazine. 

Can humans ascribe creativity to these AI-generated art pieces? Accepting AI as autonomously creative would have significant social implications. 

“Even if an artificially intelligent computer were as creative as Bach or Einstein, for many, it 

would be just apparently creative but not really creative,” said Margaret Boden in (according to Open Mind.) 

It is simpler for society to comprehend that AI artists only appear intelligent or creative rather than believe they actually are.