What is art? Is it a feeling? Is it just paint on a canvas, or pencil on paper?  Art is something people have been making for centuries, from the famous Vincent van Gogh to Andy Warhol.  It is a way for people to communicate without words.  But now there is a new form of art on the rise –  A.I. art.  A.I. art is a form of technology that uses big datasets to help create new content.  It can create art from a simple prompt, such as a drawing of a flower.  With this technology people have no limits to what they can make. But what about artists, what do they think about this up-and-coming trend of creating art from a database?

Zoe Barrows is of the many students in Grayslake Centrals National Art Honors Society.  When asked about her opinion on A.I. art she said “No, God no.”  But why would artists have such a reaction to the rise in auto generated art? “It’s just combining them together not with like human hands. It’s just a code doing that. I don’t think that it’s real art, and I do think it is stolen art,” said Barrows. This was a common issue brought up when talking to other National Art Honors Society students. Vinny Spizzirri, another member of the N.A.H.S, had their opinions on what the art made them feel as well. Spizzirri said, “…for me what makes art is the intent behind [it]; it is the emotion behind a piece while for AI art, because you strip away the humanity from it, you lose that like sense of like heart and soul within it.”  

    So, does art always need emotion or humanity to be considered art?  It’s a heavy question to consider. There are various interpretations of the question. One perspective comes from Mr. ChristopherThieme, the Director of Technology for District 127.  Thieme said “…there is a valid question as to whether AI is just making that process more efficient. But it is still an expression, [like] a musician that uses samples in their music. That is their expression.”  The faculty sponsor of the N.A.H.S, Ms. Bonnie Shorr, had her opinions on the subject also.  She has been the head of the club for three years, and still continues to help students’ passion for the arts.  Shorr said, “I think what is true about art is that it will be continued to be produced regardless of our opinion of it. So whatever we think, if the human soul feels the need to express it and we can put all the constraints we want on that…”

    Art is, in many ways, a part of everybody’s lives.  People want to create art, or at least attempt to create something, and A.I. can help with that.  Although A.I. art seems as though there is no use for it, but there is to some people.  People who don’t have accessibility to tools that are you used in art, or people who are differently abled.  This comes true to Mr. Thieme, as he said, “There’s a good friend of mine who is doing AI art and his disabilities wouldn’t allow him to do art another way.”  This raises the question, should we use A.I. art?  A.I. art has the opportunity to help people with creating, but also in some instances, A.I. art takes creations from other artists.  One example is the Keith Haring’s Unfinished Painting (1989).  A twitter user used A.I. to complete the “unfinished” painting. With defeated the purpose of the art, which was to show the harm of AIDS.  

    So what will be the fate of   A.I? We will never truly know how we will adapt to A.I. art, or how A.I art will affect the future.  It has the potential to be great, in the right hands. Ms. Shorr said, “I think art is personal. It’s what this particular human needs to do, to convey and express themselves. And so yeah, I think it could be abused, but everything can. Everything can be corrupted, everything, you know people there are always people out there who want to corrupt everything.”