Is It Art?
The core dilemma: does the production of art require a certain internal state in the producer, such as consciousness, suffering, or intention? Or is the aesthetic experience of the viewer enough?
Internal State Theories
These theories argue that art depends on something going on inside the artist.
Agential Art
Art requires agency guided by “knowledge-how,” not the mechanical aggregation of rules.
Art as Genius
Art requires genius: a distinctly human capacity to produce original works.
Embodied Experience
Art requires the embodied experience of the artist.
Aesthetic Experience Theories
These theories argue that art can be understood through the experience, interpretation, or recognition of the audience and culture.
Readymade Analogy
Art becomes art through cultural framing.
Novelty Theories
AI can create work that is novel and surprising, and novelty is central to creativity.
Recognition Theories
AI-created works have received recognition from the art world.
P-Creativity
AI can create works that are psychologically creative: it can produce works that are novel to the system itself.
Is It Ethical?
The core dilemma: to make AI models more powerful, developers train them on billions of images scraped from the internet. Is this the future of innovation, or is it mass theft?
Theft
These arguments emphasize exploitation, consent, and harm to artists.
Unauthorized Scraping
AI is trained on data sets containing billions of images, many of which are used without the original creators’ consent.
Style Theft
AI can replicate an artist’s style with extreme accuracy at little cost.
Job Threat
Technology companies benefit while artists lose work, and we risk weakening our cultural heritage.
Innovation
These arguments emphasize transformation, novelty, and expanded access to creative tools.
Transformative Fair Use
AI does not store libraries of images in the ordinary sense. It trains on massive amounts of data and uncovers statistical patterns.
Novelty
AI produces novel works by combining different elements, not simply by collaging existing images together.
Democratization
AI gives creative agency to the digital proletariat, allowing more people to create images and participate in visual culture.