Defending humankind: Anthropocentric bias in the appreciation of AI art

Abstract

We argue that recent advances of artificial intelligence (AI) in the domain of art (e.g., music, painting) pose a profound ontological threat to anthropocentric worldviews because they challenge one of the last frontiers of the human uniqueness narrative: artistic creativity. Four experiments (N = 1708), including a high-powered preregistered experiment, consistently reveal a pervasive bias against AI-made artworks and shed light on its psychological underpinnings. The same artwork is preferred less when labeled as AI-made (vs. human-made) because it is perceived as less creative and subsequently induces less awe, an emotional response typically associated with the aesthetic appreciation of art. These effects are more pronounced among people with stronger anthropocentric creativity beliefs (i.e., who believe that creativity is a uniquely human characteristic). Systematic depreciation of AI-made art (assignment of lower creative value, suppression of emotional reactions) appears to serve a shaken anthropocentric worldview whereby creativity is exclusively reserved for humans.