Is AI the Next Van Gogh?

Next big artist or master thief? AI takes on the artistic realm.

By Amanda Dibre

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking over the world of liberal arts. For better or worse? We don’t know.

Having found its popularization in self-driving cars and chess-playing computers, AI has since seen tremendous developments. Now, we’re seeing these expert digital systems write original papers, produce art pieces, and compose music and poetry. But what does that mean for the future of artists, writers, and composers themselves?

Well, in short, they’re pissed. AI is trained by scanning existing human-created work in order to create high quality pieces of its own. However, that doesn’t stop this computer from mimicking human artists that have put in the work to create their own art, poetry, and music. Essentially, hints of existing artistic signatures found in people’s work are showing up in AI created illustrations and other forms of the liberal art sector. Artists, writers, and composers are upset, accusing AI of stealing their work without consent.

It’s no secret that emerging artists and writers don’t see a heavy salary coming in, so with a computer taking pieces of their work and using it as its own, outrage has stomped to the surface.

One could argue that AI is simply using these existing artists and writers as inspiration, just as any emerging and raw talent would seek out a role model to emulate. After all, world famous artist Vincent Van Gogh copied the works of his favorite artists Eugene Delacroix and Francois Millet.

But, AI is new. It’s still developing. And people are notoriously scared of the things we don’t know. To think of a computer as a protégé is absurd, but in the 21st century nothing is off the table.

So the question remains. Is AI stealing artists’ work or is it imitating its muse? The jury is still out on that one and they’re quite divided. But one thing is for sure, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.