Would you spend money on artwork that has been created by an artificial intelligence? If so, what would be your financial limit? Probably not the upwards of $250,000 that some pieces of AI art are set to sell for at the upcoming Augmented Intelligence auction being hosted by Christie’s.
The auction will start on February 20 and run until March 5, with the artwork being exhibited at the Rockefeller Center in New York City and looking to present “remarkable works from some of the most innovative minds”. It will be selling work from “early AI pioneers of the 1960s such as Harold Cohen to contemporary artists such as Refik Anadol, Pindar Van Arman, Holly Herdnon & Mat Dryhusrt, Alexander Reben, Claire Silver, Sasha Stiles and more,” and it will span digital art, to sculptures, to paintings, prints, and beyond.
However, even though this auction will seemingly go-ahead as planned, many are not happy about it, and now a letter has been written and published on Open Letter that is calling for the auction to be cancelled. As noticed by The Guardian, the letter claims the following:
“Many of the artworks you plan to auction were created using AI models that are known to be trained on copyrighted work without a license. These models, and the companies behind them, exploit human artists, using their work without permission or payment to build commercial AI products that compete with them.
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“Your support of these models, and the people who use them, rewards and further incentivizes AI companies’ mass theft of human artists’ work.”
So far, as of the time of writing, around 3,500 people has signed and voiced their support for this letter. It’s unclear how many signatures will need to be amassed before action will be taken by Christie’s, but it does again bring up the very popular recent topic as to how and where we should use AI technology in the creative space.
What is your stance on the AI auction?
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