Art, Authorship and AI

Christie’s, one of the most famous auction houses in the world recently sold an AI generated painting for $432,500 – 45 times higher than its estimate. This event has lead to so many interesting questions about the meaning and economics of art, authorship and the relationship between technology and art. For one, the artist collective who sold the painting borrowed an open source algorithm and didn’t credit its original author – and he is not happy! Additionally, the algorithm creator also claims that the set of work the painting was based off of was actually a selection he curated for the system. In some ways this controversy is similar to that of Sherrie Levine’s After Walker Evans and really reminiscent of many of the conversations surrounding photography being accepted into the world of fine art. To read more >>