Artist Refik Anadol uses artificial intelligence to produce the images, shown here as part of the exhibition 'Earth Echoes: The Living Archive' at Serpentine North, London.
Hugo Glendinning | Courtesy of Refik Anatolian and Serpentine Studio.
The art world — like many industries — is grappling with how best to use AI, especially in its newest form, generative AI.
Image generators like OpenAI's Midjourney and DALL-E 3 can produce images from written prompts, and the technology has been used to create a magazine cover, win an art award and dress the Pope in a white puffy jacket.
Some artists CNBC spoke to described the technology's potential as scary or threatening, or expressed concerns about copyright. But they also said they're excited about what generative AI might bring.
Installation artist Robim Rubber was “shocked” when he first saw what generative AI could do, he told CNBC by phone. He said: “In its infancy, (generative) AI can create more images per second (than the human brain can) process. This is not necessarily a good thing, but we are all here forced to experiment.” -Email follow-up.
Robere specializes in sculpture, and a piece called “Dandara” is on display in New York City, in memory of Dandara dos Santos, a transgender woman who was murdered in Fortaleza, Brazil, while he also created “Dream Machine,” a large pair of butterfly wings commissioned by Celebrity Cruises. for Edge, her billion-dollar cruise ship.
Artist Rubim Rubber with his sculpture “Dream Machine.” Robber wants to set “legal limits” to protect artists' intellectual property.
Rubim ruberb
The artist, who lives between New York and Miami, said that he has not yet used artificial intelligence in his work. But he described doing so as “not a matter of choice,” and added that he was studying how and when to use it.
“We can also see it as a threat to creativity. As it exists now, AI sources (generative) from well-known images, well-known artworks and well-known artists to complete the task. Legal boundaries must be created in order to protect intellectual property,” Robber said.
In Europe, the European Commission's AI law aims to regulate the technology, depending on how dangerous it is to citizens' rights or safety, and is likely to come into effect in about two years, according to a press release issued in December. .
Generative art
Using generative AI ethically is a key consideration for London's Serpentine Gallery, which has been developing AI projects with artists since 2014, according to its CEO Bettina Coric.
One of the gallery's current exhibitions, Earth Echoes: A Living Archive, by Refik Anadolu, showcases large-scale AI-created artworks such as “Artificial Realities: Coral,” which was created using approximately 135 million images of “open” coral reefs accessible online “, according to a press release.
“AI seems so far removed from our kind of human experience. But Rafiq has created such an immersive, sensory experience,” Couric told CNBC via video call. “The public learns about art first, then technology second,” she said, adding that Anadolu emphasized the importance of using “ethically sourced” data to train the artificial intelligence that produces the images.
Artist Refik Anadol has used artificial intelligence to create works of art, as seen here in the exhibition “Echoes of the Earth: The Living Archive” at the Serpentine North Gallery in London, UK.
Hugo Glendinning | Courtesy of Refik Anatolia and Serpentine Studio.
Anadolu used what he calls the “Nature Grand Model”, where data from the Natural History Museum in London and the Smithsonian Institution were used among others to train artificial intelligence to produce content for a work called “The Living Archive: The Nature Grand Model”, which was first presented at the forum. World Economist in Davos, Switzerland, in January.
Couric said ethical sourcing of data for AI training is part of “a much larger conversation we are thinking about with artists,” and Serpentine’s fourth Future Art Ecosystems report, published in March, called on public institutions to “understand themselves as mediators of the role of AI in society.”
Other art galleries, such as 37xDubai in the UAE, are adopting AI-generated artworks. The venue's gallery, Geneative: Art & Systems, features works by artists including Julian Espanion, who blends design, symbol and art, according to gallery founder and CEO Danilo S. Carlucci.
What do we do, replace the human experience?
Asked whether generative art could match the value of art created by humans, Carlucci said generative art involves creativity and skill, in an email to CNBC. “Some of the artists in our gallery are very technical and have a very strong understanding of programming. The works they create take hours of work, and similar to traditional art, the story behind their works comes with a thoughtful message.” He said.
At the Serpentine, the gallery’s Arts Technologies team is working on a number of AI projects, including an exhibition exploring “the dark corridors of what it means to be an artist in the age of AI” by artists and musicians Holly Herndon and Matt Dryhurst. Which will open in the fall, according to a press release.
Dryhurst and Herndon are also co-founders of Spawning, an organization focused on data governance for AI. One of its products, the Have I Been Trained search engine, lets people see if their actions and photos have been used to train some of the big language models behind generative AI — with the option to block their future use.
AI platforms Stability and Hugging Face are two of the generative platforms that use the Have I Been Trained registry, and Spawning is “actively courting” both OpenAI and Midjourney, according to Jordan Mayer, its co-founder and CEO, in an email to CNBC.
Artificial intelligence as a “tool” for the artist
Abstract artist Shane Goffog has mixed feelings about artificial intelligence. He described AI as a “tool” in a video call with CNBC. “Part of it is scary,” he said. “Part of it is exciting because it allowed me to open up what I was hearing ‘sensually.’”
Guffogg suffers from synesthesia, a sensory condition that means he equates individual colors with certain musical notes, and wanted to create a piece of music based on his art that could be performed by a pianist.
He reached out to software developers to help him do this through a piece called “Sounds of Color” — part of an exhibition he will show in Venice, Italy, starting April 20 — but he found that some developers wanted to replace the human element with technology.
“They wanted it to be completely AI generated, not even on my paintings but based on my movements. And… the human element was removed. And I just said, 'No, I'm not going to do that.'” Jovog said.
California-based artist Shane Goffog worked with an artificial intelligence software programmer and a pianist to create an exhibition in Venice, Italy, between April and November. He said AI technology was “scary” and “exciting.”
Shane Govog
Another developer wanted to create a 3D avatar of Guffogg that could create new art. “He said…once we document your every move, new paintings of you could be born permanently long after you are gone,” Goffog said. A proposal he also rejected.
Goffog worked with artificial intelligence programmer Jonah Lynch and pianist Anthony Cardella on “Sounds of Color,” and said he cried when he “heard” one of his paintings being displayed for the first time. “I could hear all the (musical) influences I listened to while painting,” he said.
Goffog hasn't tried generative AI programs, but he said people have shown him images made this way. Making his own art is about “the joy of discovery,” he said. “What do we do, to replace the human experience?… Hopefully… it will erode itself and it will no longer be the brave new world,” he said of generative AI in the context of art.
Robbie had similar feelings. “(An original artwork) is only going to be original if it's coming from someone… Nothing can beat that, the original creativity. I think at some point, we're going to walk into an art gallery, and we're going to have to classify the artworks (which),” he told CNBC. : “It's man-made.”
