Creative encounters of a posthuman kind – anthropocentric law, artificial intelligence, and art

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly transformative force in human life. Crucially, its impact is already extending beyond automation of routine tasks and encroaching on creativity – a domain once seen as exclusively human. Hence, this article first surveys the discriminatory and exploitative underpinnings of the anthropocentric thinking that lies beyond attempts at sidelining the creative capacities of AI. Next, four different approaches to creativity and art are analyzed, ultimately conceptualizing art-ness as externally ascribed. Ultimately, the article moves to one way of such ascription – copyrightability – demonstrating the anthropocentric thinking behind attempts to both deny and award copyright protection to AI-generated content. Moreover, it transpires that human authors are under threat whichever of such strategies ends up dominant.