AI in Art: Applications in Today's Art Scene

Written by Catherine Seluzhytskaya

Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly popular in plenty of fields. Finance, the environment, transportation, and healthcare are among some of the most common departments in which AI is found. However, these fields are not the only job opportunities people are looking to be employed in, and they do not appeal to everyone. Many are not interested in these sciences, and would rather apply AI into their artistic passions. Today, this is possible, and is becoming increasingly popular. Artificial Intelligence is used in many art forms, including literature, music, painting, and dancing. Here we will evaluate AI in art.

Literature

Although not used by everyone, artificial intelligence plays a significant role in literature and the writing process. The most common use of AI in writing is for editing. AI tools can review and revise an author’s writing, alerting of and changing grammatical issues, and producing suggestions on how to improve writing style. Not only can AI machines edit, but they can also write entire novels. Although not used often, algorithms that can write stories may propose ideas for writers who are having trouble. Furthermore, these tools can use authors’ guidelines to write books, decreasing the amount of time it takes to publish a piece of writing. This also allows writers to divide their time and workload, getting more done in less time.

Painting

There are many uses for artificial intelligence in paintings: creating personal artwork, and helping artists create their art. AI in art uses general adversarial networks (GANs) to study paintings, draw its own, and then compare its creation to the original. This allows the machine to learn and improve from its previous attempts. AI can also use GANs to study paintings and replicate the artist’s style in new artwork. Some artists use this aspect of machine learning to their advantage, creating AIs that can reproduce their artistic style and paint along with them. This greatly reduces the amount of time to create art, making painting more efficient for those who want it.

Not only can AI machines paint the art of other painters, but it can also create its own masterpieces. In 2018, an AI drew a painting titled Edmond de Belamy, and it sold for $432, 500--422500 more dollars than it was expected to sell for.

Music

In music, artificial intelligence can be used to generate songs and song lyrics. The machine can combine music notes to create a song, and consequently provide inspiration to artists. Another way in which AI can help artists is by generating song lyrics. This will aid not only beginners, but also experienced songwriters who have “song-writer’s block”. Moreover, AI can study aspects of popular songs to predict if a new song will hit the top charts. This will help artists know what to include in their songs to make them likeable and appealing.

Dancing

As seen, a lot of uses in art involve generating new ideas, and this is no different for dancing. Artificial Intelligence can generate choreography ideas, aiding dance instructors, choreographers, and students in discovering new dance moves and overcoming creative blocks.

Originality

With all these different ways to implement artificial intelligence into unique artistic fields, questions arise on whether or not this form of art should still be considered as such. Art, according to the Lexico Dictionary (powered by Oxford Dictionary), is defined as “[t]he expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.” Clearly, art is a way to express human thoughts, opinions, and feelings. However, what if the “art” is done not by a person, but by an artificially intelligent machine? Is it still considered as art?

Some would argue that art created by an AI is still considered art, because it expresses something, although not necessarily a human thought or belief. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines art as “something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings.” Does art created by an AI not fall under this definition? Furthermore, if an AI studies an artist’s style and paints by the artist’s commands, is the creation still not the artist’s, as it expresses their ideas? The same concepts can be applied to AI in dance, literature, and music. The AI can suggest a dance, a paragraph, and song, but this is not the finished product. The artist must still edit, revise, and alter, creating a piece that demonstrates their ideas and thoughts.

While some would argue that art generated by an AI is still viewed as art, others may disagree, claiming that AI in art does not abide by the definition of art. Art must be a creative expression of one’s thoughts and feelings about life or another topic. As machines are artificially intelligent, they cannot have their own thoughts or feelings, therefore meaning they cannot create art.

Artificial Intelligence has many uses in art, not limiting people to pursue machine learning in scientific fields. Despite this, the controversial topic of whether or not art generated by an AI is still considered as art remains a debate for all artists--current and new.

Source and further information: https://www.invaluable.com/blog/ai-art/