Takeover of Traditional Art

Artificial intelligence art is one of the newest trends that has developed as the world advances, taking great leaps and pushing bounds in technology. Art is a way of expressing human creativity and showcasing their most inner thoughts and feelings. To merge the two worlds- AI and creativity- isn't a novel concept, as science has been mixed with art numerous times. However, basing art purely on technology is a concept that has yet to be fully explored.

The newest generation of art is more aligned with abstraction and pieces having a deeper, philosophical meaning, to be able to connect with the audience. This usually means a piece could have multiple meanings.

When you think of conventional artists, famous artists like Van Gogh or even Jacques-Louis David, who were the fathers of expressionism and neo-classical art, come to mind. These and other artists helped shape how art is portrayed. Not only is it a way of expressing oneself, but also to record important events, it has helped inspire fashion and music. These traditional artists would use paint and a brush or any other old-school medium to capture their impressions. This was the beginning of art in its purest form from there it grew and evolved.

This is similar to modern-day artists like Yayoi Kusama or Taeshi Murakami, who both have influenced different trends, like the latter creating the notable smiling flower. These artists created their fads and affected the art industry for it. This means that their art is not going away anytime soon, and will not become obsolete. But this is because they already have fame and customers.

The way AI artwork is created is by basing it on existing pieces. By inputting different prompts, different designs are created by the AI programs. The advantage of this is that a creation that would usually take hours or days to be finished, is completed digitally in mere seconds. There is also the greater benefit of AI art being cheaper than traditional art, as there would be no commission fee. This would be a great disservice to the artist, they would no longer be needed and may become obsolete. However, the problem with AI is it won't carry the same quality and authenticity as traditional artists who would spend hours, days and even longer to create masterpieces. That is genuine and very valuable due to the time and skill the artist used in their piece. Also it means there won’t be any originality as it can’t create new pieces, it would all be a copy of previous ones.

AI work is steadily on the rise, as a piece called a 'Portrait of Edmond de Belamy', that was estimated to be worth about $10,000, however, during the bidding rose to a 4,320% increase, with the final price being $432,500. The most expensive artwork is $450.3 million - Vinci's ‘Salvator Mundi’ - this shows that though AI art is on the rise, it can never rise to the same height as masterpieces.

Demira Govind 11F