State Fair Art Contest Won by AI-Generated Artwork; Internet Labels It "Death of Art"

 

A piece of digital art that won first prize in a competition for fine art has sparked debate on social media about the nature of art and what it means to be an artist.

Monday, Jason Allen won the fine art division at the Colorado State Fair with an artwork generated using artificial intelligence (AI). The designer of synthetic media hailed his victory on the Discord server, according to a tweet. "I won first place," he wrote with images of the AI-generated canvases displayed at the fair.

According to the website of the state fair, Mr. Allen won the digital art category. The image, which he submitted printed on canvas, depicted classical figures in a Baroque hall. He created his piece using the web software Midjourney, which is an artificial intelligence (AI) art tool that uses a text-to-image generator.

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As Mr. Allen did not create his award-winning artwork, his distinction has sparked a Twitter discussion. Some individuals believe that all human artists will be replaced by computers as a result of artificial intelligence. Others believe that art will develop and adapt as new technologies emerge.

One user said, "We are witnessing the demise of art as it unfolds before our eyes." "If creative jobs are vulnerable to automation, then even high-skilled jobs are at risk of becoming obsolete. What will we do then?" asked a second.

Third replied, "This stinks for the same reason we don't allow robots to compete in the Olympics," while fourth said, "I don't see a problem with this. Not certain how this differs from photography. Person spent weeks refining the input before sifting through hundreds of possibilities to determine the "best" ones. That demands subjective art experience. It's not as though the AI accomplished it by itself."

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According to KOAA News, Mr. Allen stated that he wrote the essay after approximately 900 attempts. He disclosed that he both scripted the scene for AI to interpret and modified the image. He feels that his distinction will prompt future art exhibitions to include an AI category.