Creativity in the Age of AI
Art by hausbomb
Does artificial intelligence mean the end of art?
With AI on the rise, people are automating content creation, generating professional headshots out of casual pictures, reimagining themselves as movie characters, and orchestrating songs with just a few words of text. Artificial intelligence is the hottest topic this year, leading to many questions: Will this replace us in the workforce? Will AI make life worse, not better? Will AI eventually grow too smart and overthrow us?
As the number of concerns grow everyday, many are eager to gain an advantage and make some money—the claim is that AI will make more millionaires faster than ever before. It is described as a race, because the suggestion is that the opportunity will disappear as soon as it arrives, like a modern-day gold rush.
A major conversation surrounding AI is art. New AI tools can create false backgrounds in any image, write all kinds of scripts, or even design logos, only to name a few. While pro-AI groups see AI as a marvel to art and entertainment, anti-art groups believe creativity as a whole is under assault. Writers, artists, and musicians alike wonder if machine brains will replace them.
Like most moral dilemmas, we only need to look at the past to see what awaits us. In 1826, the world was changed forever when Nicéphore Niépce developed the first-ever photograph of the view from his window.
View from the Window at Le Gras (1826/1827).
As photography became popular in the late 1800s, the world of art was changed permanently. See, many complain about the simplicity of modern art, but one of the main reasons for its existence is due to the camera. Before the camera, the most famed painters were the ones who could capture the smallest of details, who could make portraits the most accurate, or who could render the folds of clothing on a sculpture truest to real life.
Classical artists are still revered today, of course. However, the camera changed the trajectory that they were on. Suddenly, families could get their portraits taken instantaneously, compared to sitting hours or even days for an oil painting. The realism that the camera engendered pushed painters and sculptors to explore more abstract thoughts. And so “modern art” began emerging around 1860 and ruled the 1900s.
Examples of modern art movements.
Perhaps this insight could help us see where the future of art lies after AI. Technology kills off popular forms of art, while producing the opportunity for brand new ones. Refik Anadol’s machine hallucinations are a great example of an artist using code to create.
Many artists feel threatened by the acceleration of AI, while others see the opportunity to add something new to their toolbox. Still others are excited at the proposition that they may one day completely replace technical art, and create their own writing, music, and movies using MidJourney, ChatGPT, and other programs.
“Mr. Rosewater’s theory on creativity suggests that for A.I. to be creative, it should be able to solve problems in new ways, which is difficult because A.I. is based so heavily on already existing ideas. Alternatively, if creativity is an unconscious process as the University of Calgary research suggests, then it occurs mostly outside the frontal lobe and may not exist in machine learning networks. Either way, current A.I. probably lacks the capacity for genuine creativity and originality, but it can combine existing ideas in interesting ways. Is this true creativity? Maybe not, but it is close.” —Judah Spiegel, 14, for the New York Times
As an artist myself, I am of the opinion that all humans are innately meant to be creative, and that everyone should have a creative outlet. Regardless of your skill level or age, one can always create. While we might not be able to parse through thousands of lines of code in an instant the way an AI can, or create full-fledged dreamworlds in just a few seconds based off a one-sentence prompt, we still retain the ability to be original. An AI can never “tell the truth” so to speak—it can only test the limits of its programming—but humans following truth through expression is what gives meaning to our lives.
I asked ChatGPT if AI will replace artists and its reply was the following:
Artificial intelligence has the ability to create artworks, and there are already AI-generated paintings, music, and literature that can be difficult to distinguish from those created by humans. However, it's important to note that these AI-generated artworks are still created with human input and guidance.
While AI can generate new and unique ideas, it lacks the ability to understand human emotions, experiences, and cultural contexts in the same way that humans do. These are essential aspects of art that make it meaningful and resonant with audiences.
Therefore, it's unlikely that AI will completely replace art and artists. Instead, AI may be used as a tool to aid in the creative process or to generate new ideas, but the final product will still require the unique perspective, interpretation, and expression of a human artist.
Creativity is a necessary part of the human experience: a vehicle of reflection, an archive of life, and in the most inspired cases, a reflection of the divine. In my opinion, in an ideal world, AI should not replace the creative process, but replace robotic tasks so that we may actually be able to create more.
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