Imagine art: The status of works generated by artificial intelligence

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) can create works deceptively resembling paintings, graphics, or photographs. This article examines how to treat these works, and under what circumstances, if any, they should be understood as art. The focus is placed on the work itself in the l’art-pour-l’art-tradition, on the reception, on the skills involved in the creation, and on the authors themselves. Besides looking at literary sources touching on the aforementioned aspects, the evaluation considers the perspective of people with an affinity for art through in-depth interviews. Most interviewees revised their initial reaction after learning that the works were AI generated, being more skeptical about their status as art. It then becomes obvious that the role of the artist is undergoing change. The confrontation with the artificial brings the human creator into the foreground and makes them inseparable from the work. The new technical-cultural situation leads to a new, more contextual evaluation of art.