A couple of months ago digital artist, Jason Allen, won an art contest using the artificial intelligence program, Midjourney, to create art by using descriptive text to generate visual art. Traditional artists did not take too kindly to the win, believing that there was no human experience or emotion behind the work but it leads to the question of artificial intelligence being used as a complimentary tool or even the next level of “generative art” where computer algorithms are the next wave of artists.

I did have an opportunity to try one of these AI programs, DALL-E, to generate art by adding in particular texts and I found it very interesting. Just a couple of descriptive words and art come together. I can see why the traditional artists are upset about this. What will take them months or even years just takes minutes with these AI platforms.

Art will always continue to evolve especially with computers within the digital art realm but we are going to hear this back-and-forth discussion for a while as the art community tries to figure out how this would be categorized. I see this as not only an art form but also beneficial therapy, having regular folks create art can have therapeutic effects on the mind.

What are your thoughts on the topic? Are you for or against AI Art?

Additional Reading:

When AI can make art – what does it mean for creativity?

Picture Limitless Creativity at Your Fingertips

Latest MoMA Exhibit Is an AI-Generated Swirling Hallucination of Other Museum Art

Artificial Intelligence and the Arts: Toward Computational Creativity