For our STEAM Festival project, we’re going into the world of AI-generated art using GPT-4 and DALL-E. Our goal is to explore how artificial intelligence can create art and challenge our traditional ideas of creativity. We’ve chosen New York City as our subject because it’s such a vibrant, diverse place that’s been captured in so many different forms of art over the years. By using AI, we want to see how a machine interprets the city. What it “sees” and how it imagines NYC, without any of the human experiences or biases that usually shape how we view it. This will give us a unique perspective that most people have not seen before.
We have been very inspired by the changing face of creativity thanks to AI. Some of us really feel the forward-looking possibilities, while many others are fairly skeptical, even worried, about what this could mean for artists. This project is not about showcasing what AI can do but pushing people to think hard about what art is, how it’s made, and by whom. We’re also dealing with some of the big questions that surround AI in art, such as intellectual property. Does AI steal from human artists by learning from their work? And what of the environmental cost of running these AI systems, given the huge consumption of energy? The newer AI models are extremely power-consuming, adding a lot to carbon emissions. While AI technology is still evolving, the increasing environmental footprint raises questions about its long-term sustainability and its contribution to accelerating climate change. These too are things we want to highlight, alongside the exciting possibilities AI opens for creating new kinds of art.
The beginning of our investigation into AI-generated art needs to be framed within the broader historical context of how new technologies have changed art making. From the moment artists first embraced photography, then digital tools, and on to new techniques of painting, AI is part of this big evolution. But with AI also come some new questions: can machines actually create, or are they just mimicking patterns? And if they can create art, who owns that art? Some of the big questions to be discussed in our project. We believe AI will only continue to blur the lines between human and machine-made art, and we’d like to contribute to the ongoing conversation about what that might look like for the future of art.
Also, with this comes the changing potential of AI in art. It’s a place where, with the advancement of DALL-E with other tools, making art has never been easier, giving people with possibly no prior traditional skills or training an avenue for creation. This can give the art world a set of new voices and new ideas that make it even more diverse and inclusive. That is what raises questions about traditional art skills and what it really is to be an artist, seeing as anybody with access to AI can create these super aesthetic visual compositions. What is more important is craftsmanship, or would this be what ‘artist’ would mean now? These are some of the questions we consider as we take a look at some of the ways AI is reshaping the art world in both exciting and challenging ways. That is why we are so passionate about this project.