Is Generative AI Creating Art or Just ‘Passing’ as a Creator?

Introduction

Nowadays, generative artificial intelligence is developing rapidly, and it is widely used in artistic fields. But with the large-scale use of AI, one can not help but wonder, is AI really creating, or is it just “passing” the role of creator? This essay mainly explores this controversial phenomenon around this issue.

This essay will be analyzed From discussing the creative methods of AI, to the differences between AI and humans in creation, and finally to the current art industry market and copyright disputes.

How does AI generate art products?

AI has not experienced real life, but it can produce artistic creations. All images and sounds generated by the machine are essentially a sequence of binary zeros and ones, and by learning hundreds of millions of images and audio, a qualified binary combination is calculated. That is, the machine does not really understand what sad or happy feelings are. It tends to simply calculate the combination of pixels and audio arrangements. Although visually and audibly similar to humans, lacks the subjective initiative of humans to deal with things.

Today’s generative software works in the same way. AI does not copy works but learns various models from a large amount of training data, and its creativity comes from human instructions and combining models that humans can recognise as emotional expressions, rather than innate expressions. This learning model is similar to the “imitation game” proposed by Turing (1950) in his early theory. Turing (1950) argued that “learning” is the key to a machine’s escape from mechanical programs. He proposed that machines should be educated like human children. But AI deliberately makes mistakes like humans in order to “imitate games”, which proves that AI is doing some kind of “thinking” or “association”

 The difference between Generation AI and human emotional expression when creating

Psychologist Winnicott (1971) proposed an important theory. Winnicott believed that humans have a “true self”. This is the source of people’s expression of emotions and creativity, and this concept refers to a person’s true and instinctive reactions. For its formation, Winnicott argued that the growth of the true self requires a mother, and if the mother can understand and respond to the baby’s innate needs, the baby will develop the “true self”. And if the mother always forces the baby, the baby will give up his real needs to imitate and cater to the mother. At this time, a “false self” arises. Similarly, when a human inputs a simple prompt to the AI, complex artwork is generated instantly. This extremely high feedback efficiency is similar to the theory described by Winnicott.

Take the concept album “Plagiarism” by the Japanese band Yorushika (n-buna, 2020). The album tells the story of a claim to be a “plagiarist” who believes that human creation is often accompanied by the reference and reconstruction of the art of the elder. Meanwhile, the protagonist fights against the inner emptiness through the guilt generated by “plagiarism”. In the inner pain and struggle, the true self is born from the false self. Even if this kind of immoral “plagiarism” is carried out, the human mind is usually full of contradictory and complex emotions.

The impact of AI use on creative industries

To improve efficiency, AI can reduce a lot of production costs and time, and people have different opinions on this phenomenon. Some people are optimistic about AI. Epstein, Z. et al. (2023) argue that machines are more than just a passive obey tool. It can sometimes randomly combine unexpected pictures or melodies. This kind of surprise can often bring new inspiration to artists who are stuck in limitations. However, there are also people who hold different opinions. Samuelson (2023) notes that current copyright laws are difficult to limit style imitation. Because artistic style is often a vague feeling, it is difficult to be clearly defined by traditional legal provisions. Due to the efficiency and low cost of AI generation, the living space of human creators is seriously threatened.

Take the experience of Greg Rutkowski, a Polish digital illustrator. Greg has been painting fantasy-style works in the art circle for many years. Until the advent of the AI drawing tool Stable Diffusion, he found that his name was called more than 90,000 times in this tool. In the process, Greg himself will not be paid anything and may lose potential job opportunities.

How are the rights and interests of creators protected?

How to protect the style of human creators from being “plagiarised” is still not fully resolved. AI affects the licensing market, and licensing fees are often very expensive. Many independent musicians often rely on these insignificant licensing fees to survive. Now, AI can generate a large number of cheap or even free background music in an instant. This magnifies the survival problem of ordinary creators again.

However, no matter how far AI can learn from humans, all its purpose is to help humans. Therefore, if we want to protect human creative style, the only thing that can be done at present is to limit the way humans use AI, not to rely too much on it, to produce on a large scale, and to publish content that imitates the style of creators. With the aim of protecting human motivation from the “true self”, the complex emotions that creators pour into the creative process should not be ignored.

Conclusion

In conclusion, AI is just “passing” as a creator in the field of art. It has no self, and it does not experience the complex emotions that are important when creating. However, the application of AI has had a certain impact on the digital creative industry. While AI can sometimes provide some inspiration, relying too much on it often leads to the loss of commercial value in artwork. At the same time, it has also caused complex copyright disputes. The living space of human creators is still a cause for concern.

About the Author

Yutong Wang is a sophomore majoring in Art and Festival Management (AFM) at De Montfort University (DMU). She has a deep passion for music and digital art, and likes to explore the integration and innovative expression of various art forms in festivals and activities. This article was completed in her first year of college and showed her initial ideas and explorations in art research and creative practice.