The development of tools and applications that employ artificial intelligence algorithms has opened the door to a galaxy of possibilities in which we are given the option of relying on the intellect of a computer to execute, decide and think for us. With the very definition of "intelligence" in the line of crossfire, the question is: Can art be intelligent? Or, rather, should art need to be?
The evolution of the lexicon and etymology of languages is a fascinating subject. From the first moments of life, with an empty lexical bank, we are converted into linguistic sponges, programmed to absorb words, phrasal constructions and sounds, making our own the languages we are exposed to. The fascinating part is how this structural feature of human interaction remains in constant evolution with no limits to its capacity, and, in a more or less agile way, promotes the instinct to retain this information because in it we see the key to the most basic form of expression we know. A few years ago, the acronym AI was not part of our dictionaries and had no real place in any current discussion, apart from a few rare exceptions. The concept of artificial intelligence was first introduced in 1955, when computer scientist John McCarthy used the term during a workshop at Dartmouth College in the United States. The success of introducing expressions, definitions and concepts into what we interpret as "everyday language" is closely linked to the popularity of these words. Thus, and at the risk of incurring in some degree of randomness, the degree of ease with which they infiltrate the stream of discourse becomes a determining factor in their eventual definition as self-explanatory. This has been the case with artificial intelligence, where the opening up of a new scientific lexicon has permanently fissured the way we see the world around us, from the way we interpret results to the emails we write, from the way we produce opinions to the very art we create.
The Oxford English Dictionary indexes the definition of artificial intelligence as "the theory and development of computer systems capable of performing tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision making, and language translation." It's no wonder that the technological revolution encapsulated in this definition shook not only the scientific community, but the entire world in its wake - after all, and as many still maintain, we were on the front line of the human versus machine battle, a lost sequel of The Matrix that we never thought we'd consider as a possibility. What this theory proposed, for the first time, was training technology to behave like a person according to its own cognitive exercise, replacing the synapses that occur between our neurons with programming systems. Calling it "intelligent", on the other hand, is a product of that programming's ability to solve problems and automate decision-making using the fundamentals of logic, probability, and deduction, while always considering the gains in utility inherent to each choice. The alienation we might be tempted to feel in the face of the complexity of these concepts is what makes the next revelation so surprising, or at least curious: AI is almost everywhere, present in practically every operating system we use every day, and influences our behavior in such a covert way, that it seems downright impossible that we understand so little of what it actually is.
Years of investment and research have finally made it possible to design tools that employ this new generation of so-called intelligent algorithms, causing a wave of disruption even more devastating than the concept itself - because this time, the definition had materialized, and it was within everyone's reach with just a few taps on a screen. From ChatGTP to facial recognition, from filters on TikTok to recommendations of new artists on Spotify, the patterns we consciously or inadvertently create with our digital footprint feed these brains made of 0 and 1’s, informing them about how we rationalize each and every decision. If we focus our attention on the best known of these examples, ChatGTP (whose evolution from generation to generation is nothing short of exponential), we quickly understand the attraction factor: it has never been easier to write difficult emails. Motivation letters, the structure of a presentation, a department's timetable, a prime minister's concession speech... they all appear in seconds, by the work of a phantom hand, on a screen daubed with typewritten letters. Eureka - we had in our hands the perfect template for any so-called analytical task, based on objective factors or precedents. But the story didn't end there, and while we believed that the domains governed by sensitivity, emotion and feeling didn't seem to meet the necessary requirements to justify the intervention of AI, it was art's turn to become intelligent (and artificial).
Let's go back to the beginning and to the importance of words. When it comes to the relationship between artificial intelligence and art, it is necessary to make a distinction between generative art and AI-generated art. The former is defined as a form of art created through a set of rules, algorithms or processes that are defined by the artist or designer. Instead of being conceived by hand, they are the product of software tools. In the case of AI-generated, we are talking about art as the result of the very skill of these tools which, by resorting to their database, are trained to create images and installations that become independent of the will or imagination of their operator. It is in this instance that the painter's hand is left behind, and the brush comes to life and frees itself from the constraints of human imagination, revealing results that we are not yet programmed to imagine.
The potential for innovation is too great to ignore, and the experimentation that comes from letting artificial intelligence run free challenges the way we approach art itself, and how we experience it, with many proven success stories. Refik Anadol is an AI artist specializing in immersive and interactive installations. The audiovisual experiences he develops through the use of advanced algorithms have earned him a regular place in the world's largest museums and galleries, including MoMA and Palazzo Strozzi, as well as on the facades of monuments and iconic places, where the symbiosis between performance art and architecture creates a kind of sensory hallucination. Sofia Crespo is another name of note in the world of AI-generated art, in which the creation of "speculative" organisms and life forms (for example, plants or sea creatures) blurs the boundaries between the organic and the artificial. Another pandora's box of old news is the world of NFT’s, which in recent years has infiltrated the digital world, art, fashion, and the economy of international markets. These digital and interactive representations that have acquired the status of art, to the surprise of some and the indignation of many, have assaulted the market with a wave of speculation, the counterpoint to which has been the eventual free fall in their valuation and credibility - a categorical example being the case of the NFT Bored Ape, acquired by Justin Bieber in January 2022 for the modest sum of 1.31 million US dollars, and which today is valued at 59 thousand. The signs of caution motivated by the skepticism of consumers are abundant, but not enough to slow down the expansion of this Big Bang that has catapulted us into the metaverse, where in a parallel digital reality, our aliases wear collections from our favorite brands, to visit the virtual spaces of our favorite galleries, where we can see walls full of our favorite art. It didn't take long before the first AI fashion week appeared, where the immersive 360o experience transports us to remote locations and 3D catwalks, where travel and accommodation budgets, content management and the political game of public relations are reduced to one or two additional lines of code. We are thus entering the race to conquer the meta-markets in which the giants of the industry (Gucci, Zara, Adidas, and Louis Vuitton, to name a few) compete for the top among the surreal landscapes and architectural marvels designed by Khaled Sadeden or Paul Milinski.
When we become allies of AI, the possibilities are (quite literally) endless, but what many consider to be the most relevant discovery of the century quickly raises complex questions about the ethics and morality of its use. To come across one of these AI-generated visuals in a gallery or on a social network is to realize that we don't possess the level of discernment necessary to distinguish with certainty what exists from what is merely being shown as a reality, and in an artistic Shanghai maneuver, the risk of de-formation is so high, that the provocation must, at the very least, awaken in the observer a staunch devotion to the pursuit of critical thinking, and to analogical thinking - in other words, using our own head. Since the boom of this technological advance, humans have been haunted by the possibility of being replaced. Designers, artists, writers, architects, even doctors, lawyers, managers, engineers, all feel the threat posed by the design of a system that gives a computer a semi-thinking brain, erasing their role in society as we know it. It would be a stoical scenario, to say the least. Instead of admitting defeat and succumbing to the fear of the unknown, perhaps there is room for us to consider a dual nationality in creative fields, in which art accepts the challenge of AI in expanding its frontiers but continues to be armed with the beat of a human heart at its core, which superimposes empathy, emotion, and feeling over the need to define itself as rational or intelligent. The final irony would be to reveal that this text was written entirely by ChatGTP, were it not for the human imperfection that characterizes it, irrefutable proof that this is not the case. Would it have been less redundant? Perhaps. More concise? Probably. But it would not have been so my own, nor so Vogue.
*Originally translated from the Arts Issue, published November 2023. Full credits and stories in the print issue.
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