March 27 – The anxiety over generative AI has stoked fears around artists’ and musicians’ eventual obsolescence. Some speculators contend that AI will eventually make better art than most humans, sparking debates over the future of creativity and human ingenuity.

While some argue that AI-generated art lacks the emotional depth and nuance of human-created art, others believe that the precision and efficiency of AI could make art more palatable, more widely accessible and more widely available. Regardless of what you believe, AI is already making an impact in the art world.

In relation to the AI-art controversy, at least one expert points out that it’s a mistake to assume that human taste in art will remain the same over time. Society has changed its collective taste in response to technological progress in the past. The same phenomena may occur again. We may not even notice it happening. In turn, humans may come to value human-generated art more highly than AI-based art.

AI and art value

Fifteen years ago, a group of researchers from University College London and the University of Copenhagen placed people into fMRI machines and requested for them to examine a series of abstract images.

The researchers told the individuals about whether the images were human-made or computer-generated. The results were astounding. People not only claimed to prefer the human-created pictures, but in looking at the human-made images, the study participants’ brains lit up more brightly than in looking at the computer-generated images.

Advances in detection

As time goes on, it’s possible that humans will develop a cultural preference (and even a bias of sorts) for music and art that’s human-generated. Auditory and aesthetic masterpieces generated by AI may be looked upon with suspicion or derision.

While artists may take up AI as a new and exciting tool, AI is unlikely to produce ‘better’ art than humans can produce. Instead, the use of AI in art may transform our sense of what is beautiful.

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