Can Artworks by Artificial Intelligence be Artworks?

Yeonsook Park

doi:10.25038/am.v0i20.332

Abstract

The thinking power of Homo sapiens made human beings the lord of all creation. The ability to reason is also the premise of human existence. We, however, now know that this is not confined only to human but to Artificial Intelligence. Over the history of humankind, human beings have attempted to create an immortal being that could surpass their abilities and complements their inferiorities. We are making something immortal and transcendent, which are different properties from our own. Artificial Intelligence may be able to evolve on its own like humans have been doing. As a kind of numerical being, humans are able to be omnipresent with the technology provided. This new kind of existence makes us think about and see things differently. Humans are attempting to create ‘beings’ that can generate art, take care of weak human beings, talk and discuss human issues, and even fall in love with humans. As our minds can run beyond the boundaries created by our body limitations, we would like to infuse our creativity into AI that might evolve from its original state. Similar to what Prometheus did, humans are attempting to share their legacy with another existence. Recently a research team from Rutgers University in New Jersey proposed a system named CAN: Creative Adversarial Networks for generating art with creative characteristics. The team demonstrated a realization of this system based on a novel, creative adversarial network. Their proposed system possesses the ability to produce novel artworks which make people believe human artists produced them. The data the team proposes proves that AI now attempts to do something considered as a creative activity. With this research, the definition of art should be reconsidered. Since the Fountain(1917) by Duchamp, open concepts toward artworks have been embraced by many artists and their colleagues. However, it is time to contemplate the new phase. When we regard something as artwork, should it be created, selected, and combined by human beings? Is it possible that the thing that is accepted as artwork by people can be art? This paper seeks to propose several opinions regarding these questions. Article received: June 23, 2019; Article accepted: July 6, 2019; Published online: October 15, 2019; Review article

Highlights

AI pervades in human life, forms new relationships with us, and processes the information much better than humans do
We are hardly exposed to the physical actuality of unedited actual events and information
The actual events transform into images, messages, and symbols in the information network of the entire society, and the actuality eventually disappears

Summary

Introduction

AI pervades in human life, forms new relationships with us, and processes the information much better than humans do. We live in an information-oriented, media-saturated society and face a sort of de-realization of reality and material in every area of life. It is because communication technologies replace direct contact with the physical environment and because the mass media form their own world, the hyper-reality. In this hyper-real world, the gap between image and reality disappears because all of the information we obtain from the mass media is a simulation of the original event. It seems that we accept the artworks generated by AI as another flow of art in the new era. I would like to propose questions that are when we regard something like artwork, should it be created, selected, and combined by human beings? Is it possible that the thing that is accepted as artwork by people can be art?

Message from AI

Human as information

What can be the artwork?