The Dual Nature of AI: New Paradigm for Our Common Future
As we navigate the complexities of an AI-driven world, it is imperative to approach technological advancements with a human-centric perspective, ensuring that the values of empathy, creativity, and ethical responsibility remain at the forefront. The ethical development and responsible deployment of AI are crucial for shaping a future where technology serves to enhance human experiences rather than detract from them. By proactively engaging with AI in the realm of arts and culture, we not only push the boundaries of creativity and innovation but also set a precedent for how technology can be harnessed to promote diversity, inclusivity, and ethical considerations in all aspects of society. What are some of the challenges artists face? And how can AI be integrated thoughtfully into creative endeavors to broaden societal frameworks and empower us to create, connect, and thrive?
The Dual Nature of AI in Creative Industries
AI's infiltration into the realm of art and creative industries has ushered in a new era of possibilities. While AI tools expand the creative processes of many artists, they also raise critical questions regarding copyright ownership and creative autonomy. Finding themselves at a crossroads, artists are balancing the benefits of AI-enhanced creativity with potential challenges posed by AI. Christie's AI-generated art auction faces backlash as thousands of artists petition against the auction for using models trained on copyrighted works without proper authorization, drawing criticism over issues of ownership, authorship, and the definition of art in the digital age, as well as raising concerns about the exploitation of artistic labor by technology companies. At the same time, US Copyright Office asserts that artists can copyright works made using AI as an assistive tool as an attempt to clarify the boundaries of legal ownership, ensuring creators retain rights to their AI-assisted works as we navigate the complexities introduced by AI. The impact of AI in the creative sector is undeniable, offering expanded artistic possibilities, enhanced productivity, and an enriched content offering. At the same time, the lack of transparency in AI systems training, together with the potential displacement of artists and creatives is threatening the cultural and creative ecosystem. As policymakers continue to establish frameworks around AI risk, intellectual property, and ethics, artists and creatives must proactively protect the authenticity and integrity of their works.
Protecting Artistic Integrity in the Digital Age
As artists grapple with the implications of AI on their creative processes, it is imperative to protect their intellectual property rights. By proactively registering their works, and utilising digital rights management (DRM) technologies, watermarking and digital fingerprinting, artists can fortify their position in asserting control over their creations in the digital realm, yet many artists do not have the support necessary to develop their own archive and inventory of their works, let alone navigating and devising their own copyright ownership and licensing agreements, royalty distributions plans for reproductions or derivative works. How can we support individual artists and creators in navigating the increasing needs to navigate our digital world where the boundaries are increasingly permeable? Technologies such as blockchain can potentially play a part for providing verified authenticity and provenance for artists, yet the adoption of new technology paradigms is highly complex and often involve multiple stakeholders, making it difficult for innovation, scalability, and requires fundamental changes in thinking and values in our community, institutions, businesses, and other systems in order to ensure a sustainable model.
Embracing the Potential of AI for Diversity, Inclusivity, and Ethics
Despite the challenges posed by AI in the realm of copyrights, artists are harnessing the transformative power of AI to explore new frontiers of creativity and expression. AI tools can amplify artistic capabilities, inspire collaborative approaches, pushing boundaries of traditional art forms, at the same time, AI systems are also prone to “hallucinations,” the potential of a model collapse due to the lack of original content, biases, conflict in values, and security vulnerabilities. Multi-media artist and AI researcher Claudia Larcher developed the project ‘AI and the Art of Historical Reinterpretation - Filling Gender Bias Gaps’ as an attempt to eliminate gender biases in historical datasets used by AI, raising ethical questions regarding potential consequences of using AI to predict our future, AI image generation models’ capability in rewriting history, and ways in which deliberate distortion of large datasets can influence AI generated outcomes. When it comes to datasets, there are also vast imbalances in languages, potential exploitations, and other inequalities, calling for an urgency for more human-centred approaches. In an age where increasing agency is given to systems and machines over human interventions, new media artist Lazarus Chan’s ‘Pneuma.to’ relies on human interaction to co-create and give meaning to language. Through the amalgamation of symbols and breath, the work expresses the fluidity of digital language and its uncertainty, commenting on the evolution of language, from being the “cornerstone of civilisation” to the fragmentation, alienation, and limitation in the digital age. These artistic interventions speculates on plausible futures, reflecting the importance of “digital humanism” and calls for a humanistic approach.
Working Towards a Common Future
How can AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) be more inclusive and equitable? How can we rethink data authenticity, provenance, representation, and inclusion in AI? With AI's growing presence, and a proliferation of synthetic content, misinformation and disinformation continues to be one of the world’s greatest global risks—from market manipulations, to the undermining of democratic processes, the erosion of public trust, and threatening of journalistic and creative integrity, diversity and inclusiveness. At the same time, global threats are calling for urgent solutions and an AI approach that postulate “imperatives for social co-operation, communication and cognition on a planetary scale” is more important now than ever. It is up to us to take lead and contribute to a diversity of perspectives from artists, entrepreneurs, policymakers and technologists. Seeking input from underrepresented communities, fostering new ideas, discussions, and debate on ethics, governance, and diversity across sectors and cultures. Ultimately, humanity must be prioritised in order to contribute to a sustainable future in response to the evolving social, political, and ecological challenges we face globally. AI can be a tool, not only to help avert threats, but to empower us to create, connect, and thrive in a more interconnected and equitable world.
