If the question of whether artificially-intelligent machines could prove capable of replacing humans in the creative arena, this recent fiasco might be a good indicator of things to come.
According to reports, there was a bit of an upheaval at the recently-concluded Colorado State Fair when an art contest held during the event awarded the grand prize to a painting produced by an artificial intelligence (AI) program.
The painting in question was submitted by Jason M. Allen – the president of Incarnate Games, and was titled Théâtre D’opéra Spatial.
Admittedly, the piece can definitely be described as beautiful to look at – a highly-stylized depiction of a princely, futuristic ballroom of sorts with a wide portal opening at the center looking out towards a bright, otherworldly landscape.
At first glance, anyone not knowing any better would've been fooled (probably), especially when you consider the composition and style of the art piece – which could perhaps win at any art competition.
However, despite the beauty of the piece, there were many who weren't too happy with the outcome due to the nature of how it was produced in the first place. While other entrants had created their pieces by virtue of their own skills, Allen's piece was simply generated by the AI art platform called Midjourney, which simply works by creating art pieces by using keywords entered by users.
TL;DR — Someone entered an art competition with an AI-generated piece and won the first prize.
Yeah that's pretty fucking shitty. pic.twitter.com/vjn1IdJcsL — Genel Jumalon ✈️ Nan Desu Kan (@GenelJumalon) August 30, 2022
Many also thought that Allen's submission was not within the spirit of the competiton, although the organizers hadn't realized the truth of the matter when handing out the prizes. They still later admitted that there were actually no rules prohibiting the use of AI to create submission pieces, although one might wonder if they'd have included such clauses had they realized that such a thing was a possibility.
Similarly, on Twitter, there was plenty of backlash among artists dismayed at the art piece winning the top prize, with many saying that the incident was setting a precedent that would allow future competitions to be riddled with submissions borne from AI applications.
"We're watching the death of artistry unfold before our eyes," said one Twitter user. "If creative jobs aren't safe from machines, then even high-skilled jobs are in danger of becoming obsolete. What will we have then?"
Maybe AI art should have merit, too.
Allen, however, begged to differ, and argued that there was still merit in art created by AI algorithms. He said that despite not using tools such as brushes, paints, or pencils, he'd still put in quite a bit of effort in the form of carefully-crafted keywords through which Midjourney was able to create Théâtre D’opéra Spatial.
"What if we looked at it from the other extreme, what if an artist made a wildly difficult and complicated series of restraints in order to create a piece, say, they made their art while hanging upside-down and being whipped while painting," he said to Vice in an interview.
"Should this artist's work be evaluated differently than another artist that created the same piece 'normally'? I know what will become of this in the end, they are simply going to create an 'artificial intelligence art' category I imagine, for things like this."
Right now, it doesn't seem as if the argument between opponents and proponents of AI-generated media will end, but it will be interesting to see if there'll be any middle ground found as such technology continues to evolve and permeate into the mainstream.
After all, we can definitely admit that AI-produced art can be incredibly beautiful, even if devoid of the human elements that many may require for something to be considered "art". But even so, perhaps we can find ways to value such creations using different yardsticks – such as keyword complexity, for instance.
What do you think? Should AI-generated art be accepted in some capacity, or is there no place for it in the creative field?
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Cover image sourced from Economic Times.
