Artificial intelligence, artists, and art: Attitudes toward artwork produced by humans vs. artificial intelligence

Joo Wha Hong, Nathaniel Ming Curran

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

59 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study examines how people perceive artwork created by artificial intelligence (AI) and how presumed knowledge of an artist's identity (Human vs. AI) affects individuals' evaluation of art. Drawing on Schema theory and theory of Computers Are Social Actors (CASA), this study used a survey-experiment that controlled for the identity of the artist (AI vs. Human) and presented participants with two types of artworks (AI-created vs. Human-created). After seeing images of six artworks created by either AI or human artists, participants (n = 288) were asked to evaluate the artistic value using a validated scale commonly employed among art professionals. The study found that human-created artworks and AI-created artworks were not judged to be equivalent in their artistic value. Additionally, knowing that a piece of art was created by AI did not, in general, influence participants' evaluation of art pieces' artistic value. However, having a schema that AI cannot make art significantly influenced evaluation. Implications of the findings for application and theory are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Article number58
JournalACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications
Volume15
Issue number2s
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2019

Keywords

  • Art
  • Artificial intelligence
  • CASA
  • Creativity
  • Human-machine communication
  • Humancomputer interaction
  • Schema theory

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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