Can a machine, with access to the collective human knowledge available on the internet, be truly creative? Isn’t that, after all, what human beings do — draw on experience, wait for inspiration, tinker around a bit, to produce “art”?
Can it be taken without a photographer, or a camera even? As an AI-generated image wins the World Photography Award, that’s the question
By: Editorial
April 20, 2023 06:33 IST
Three of the four categories at the World Photography Awards — “professional”, “student” and “youth” — are limited: By implication, they restrict the entries to those from people of a certain age, or achievement and experience. This year, though, the “open” category was pushed to its limits as well. German artist Boris Eldagsen’s entry — Pseudomnesia: The Electrician — won but the “creators” refused the award. Eldagsen revealed that the photograph — a haunting image of two women, generations apart — was made using artificial intelligence.
Eldagsen said he wants the work to open up a conversation around technology, art and photography, and the nature of authorship and creativity. The fact is that technology has been an integral part of artistic practice since the birth of photography. More recently, the question has been about how much digital intervention is kosher, and its moral implications — say, in terms of colour correction or even “photo-shopping” celebrities to make them conform to imagined standards of beauty on magazine covers. Yet, the current AI panic — heightened as it has been with the launch of mass-use apps like ChatGPT and Lensa — is premised on technology not just being a tool, but an artist of sorts itself.
Can a machine, with access to the collective human knowledge available on the internet, be truly creative? Isn’t that, after all, what human beings do — draw on experience, wait for inspiration, tinker around a bit, to produce “art”? Perhaps the discomfort around AI as artist comes from the fact that unlike, say, a car or a safety pin, the value of art comes more from the processes and persons involved in its production. Machines have already replaced workers, without much fuss. If self-driving cars are to become a reality, why not a camera-less, photographer-less photograph?
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd