Is an artificial intelligence creative? A question that has been asked again and again in recent years and vehemently denied, because everything would only be a consequence of logical conclusions that can seem like creativity to us humans. But can there be art without creativity?
That discussion has now been sparked by a digital painting that won first place in this year’s Colorado State Fair digital art competition. The painting, which is somewhat reminiscent of a scene from a science fiction movie, was not created by a creative digital artist, however, but by an AI based on carefully thought-out instructions.
As you might expect, most artists were less than thrilled with the jury’s decision to award AI-created art, strongly criticizing the $300 prize and its winner, Jason Allen.
Allen used the artificial intelligence Midjourney to create the winning image, which can generate artwork, photos and any other type of graphic based on the input of a line of text. The image, “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial,” wowed the judges with its tangible future, while the art world cries unimaginativeness and the end of creative professions.
Jason Allen defends his creative achievement, explaining that he spent hours crafting the perfect line of text from hundreds of prompts that ultimately inspired Midjourney to create the artwork. He describes that he continued to feel like an artist because he was directing while Midjourney was only accomplishing the brush stroke. After the image was generated, Allen further enhanced it and scaled it up.
The excellent work is now for sale for $750.
What’s your opinion? Are works like Jason Allan’s an opportunity or a threat to the creative scene? Feel free to post it in the comments.
Post image: Jason Allen
