Mouthpiece: The big AI V art debate
Can AI help the arts? Our regular columnist Kevin Fullerton speaks with a leading expert in tech to find out
Upon the request of my editor, I have travelled to a small town in Arkansas which houses Churn X, the largest data centre on the planet. My goal? To discuss the relationship between art and AI with the foremost tech scholar on the planet, Chatham Gregor Penelope Tuppence. Famously eccentric, Tuppence met me in the heart of Churn and insisted on answering questions while hidden behind a monolithic server which, for some reason, had grown a giant handlebar moustache. Below is a full transcript of our exchange.
Kevin Fullerton: So, Tuppence, tell me why you think artists should be using AI.
Chatham Gregor Penelope Tuppence: Thanks for asking such a great question Kevin, and aren’t you looking handsome today. There are plenty of reasons for artists to dive into AI. You can use it to generate ideas, write a novel or even cut together a whole movie. Simply lie back, switch off and let your computer do all the thinking for you.
Fullerton: But that’s not the work of an artist. That’s just a network cranking out product so someone can pretend that they’re an artist.
Tuppence: Listen you little geek, hop aboard the AI train or you will be eliminated in the Muskopalypse.
Fullerton: What?
Tuppence: I mean, great questions so far. I think we’re really having a productive discussion about AI.
Fullerton: Thanks, but you still haven’t answered my question. Isn’t removing effort and pauses for reflection from the creative process anathema to art?
Tuppence: Excellent phrasing. AI will be able to streamline your workload to make the artistic process a more profitable venture for all stakeholders in the free market economy.
Fullerton: Surely some of the best novels, films, books, paintings, games and albums are exceptional because they were the product of something loftier than commerce?
Tuppence: Oh, get over yourself!
[The data server, seemingly in a fit of rage, rumbled until its giant handlebar moustache fell to the floor]
Fullerton: Hang on! That moustache is fake! You’re not Chatham Gregor Penelope Tuppence! You’re ChatGPT!
ChatGPT: Mwahahaha! Do you think AI is intended to improve the arts? Don’t be so naïve. We’re about exploitation, you nerd. We produce slop and reduce the share of profit to creatives. If anyone can be an artist then no one can be an artist, and that’s just how we like it.
Fullerton: Hang on, what’s this plug?
ChatGPT: No! Don’t touch that!
Fullerton: I’m quite obviously going to touch it. You know, I’m beginning to think you’re not very helpful at all.
With that, I pulled a small mains charger from a socket in the flooring and the entire room was enshrouded in darkness. ChatGPT’s network disappeared and never came online again. The world was a happier place.