AI and Art

So…in September there were quite a few articles out about an AI program winning first place in an art competition. Yes, first place. And artists are furious.

It’s happening in the world of creativity, an arena that people have been saying was safe from AI because the software was not creative.

The results of that art competition blast that comfort feeling away and makes people wonder is there no place safe? Predictably, the articles focused on the fact of an AI winning the competition and the doomsday response from the artists. But way deep in the articles, at least some of them, there is a seed of hope or a way to think of this development.

Basically, artists need to learn how to use the AI as part of their creative repertoire to improve their work and to speed things up.

That is what I have been telling myself: learn how to use the digital tools to your advantage. It is not just the art world facing some kind of “extinction” (although I don’t think it will really be extinction – it’s just going to be done differently), finance world is undergoing the same process of automation. Professionals in the finance departments (FP&A, AR. AP, etc.) in companies face the same prospect of being obsolete in the face of these software incursions.

So, learn how to use the digital tools to your advantage.

I have an analogy that I like to tell myself: long time ago, in the mists of time, we human beings traveled on two feet. There may have been some runners who ran from one place to another to deliver small goods or messages. Then at some point, maybe four to five thousand years ago, horses became domesticated, and man started using them for travel and transportation. The runners were out of a job. The rest of us learned how to use horses to our advantage.

Then sometime in the 1600s or 1700s horses were replaced by cars. Horses were out of a job. But man continued to use cars to their advantage; some became cab drivers at some point.

Sometime in the future, there is a prospect of driverless cars. At that point, I imagine man will adjust and use those cars to their advantage.

Will we always figure out a way to generate new jobs in the face of automation? I don’t know. It might be that at some point everything gets automated, especially if the super wealthy gets their way – all money flow into their pockets to the detriment of everyone else.

Here’s where I think our value system needs to change. Instead of shareholder value, we need to broaden the purpose to make sure we are doing things for the good of mankind and earth. We do have the stakeholder philosophy, but it remains to be seen if it is real or is just a form of whitewashing.

But for the near future, learn how to use digital tools to your advantage.

Links to the articles

An AI-Generated Artwork Won First Place at a State Fair Fine Arts Competition, and Artists Are Pissed

Is AI Making the Creative Class Obsolete?

A man won an art competition in Colorado using AI-generated art, prompting a debate over what art is

And a more optimistic take

The real opportunity in creative AI: Deepening human creativity