DIGITAL LIFE

Megalomaniacal AI of the 21st-century pharaohs may assume co-authorship of works in the future

While the use of artificial intelligence is far from a settled issue in the visual arts—as evidenced by the petition with over six thousand signatures against a Christie's auction dedicated exclusively to AI creations in February, due to fears of unauthorized use of artworks in machine training—the resource is already widely integrated into creative processes and institutional and market circuits. Earlier this month, one of the highlights of the 23rd edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, the largest art fair in the Americas, was the Zero 10 section, dedicated to digital art. One of the most photographed and Instagrammed works at the event was “Regular Animals,” in which robotic dogs with their heads covered by silicone masks of artists such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, and billionaire CEOs of big tech companies Elon Musk (X), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), and Jeff Bezos (Amazon) circulated in an enclosure, reacting to AI commands. Its creator, Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, gained notoriety when he sold his digital collage “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” for US$69.3 million at Christie’s in 2021.

In the coming years, the trend is for AI to become an increasingly used tool by professionals in the sector, even those who do not work directly with digital art, and, in some cases, its use will be configured as a co-authorship process.

At Art Basel Miami Beach, the section dedicated to digital art was inspired by the exhibition “0,10: The Last Futurist Painting Exhibition,” held in St. Petersburg in 1915, a landmark of Suprematism, when Kazimir Malevich presented his iconic “Black Square on a White Background.” Just as the work of the Ukrainian artist (at the time, part of the Russian Empire) symbolized total abstraction and pointed to the future of visual arts, the fair's organizers see digital art and art created with AI as another turning point in the sector.

— We will see more digitally native works entering all sectors. It will be very different at each of the fairs; what we show here will not be the same as what we will see at Art Basel Hong Kong (in March). I'm excited to see how it will evolve — said Bridget Finn, director of the Miami fair.

One of the artists exhibiting in the sector was the New York-based Canadian Dmitri Cherniak, who presented works from the “Ringers” series, inspired by “Book of Time,” by the Brazilian artist Lygia Pape. Displayed on a large digital panel, in prints, and in a stainless steel sculpture, the series starts from the infinite combinations of how to pass a rope through a set of pins. For him, the application of AI as an artistic tool is comparable to what the Hungarian László Moholy-Nagy did at the beginning of the 20th century, an enthusiast of the use of technologies such as photography, cinema, and electric motors in kinetic sculptures, as well as new materials, such as Plexiglas.

— Today we see many people who grew up working with computers and code, tools used mainly for economic or political purposes, using them for artistic purposes — comments Cherniak. — It is important that artists use these tools; they need to be used to create art. I like to say that automation is my artistic medium. It affects us all daily, and I try to use it not to save 5% on a product, but to create something poetic and creative.

Creator of the Meta Gallery, in downtown Rio, focused exclusively on aspects of technological art, such as augmented reality, generative works and crypto art, Byron Mendes believes that, although it is already part of current production, there is still much to be explored in the use of AI.

— AI today plays the role of an assistant, it speeds up image research, composition tests, creation of variations, simulations of installations. It is a tool, but a tool that has an opinion. And in many cases it can create a process of co-authorship — observes Mendes. — We have always tried to accelerate processes, just think of those studios of the great masters of the Renaissance, with several pupils working together. This led to issues of shared authorship debated to this day, of works attributed to an artist but which may have been executed by an assistant. It is something that we will see with AI, because it brings possibilities that would not always be conscious in the creator's mind. But, of course, the curatorship and responsibility for the process remain with the artist.

Concerns about ethical issues...With the exhibition "Poetic Microbiomes" on display until March 2026, Meta Gallery presented, until October, the solo exhibition "This is not a prompt," in which the computational artist Marlus Araujo showed generative works, with a proposal for co-authorship of AI interfaces with the public.

— What we have to do now is build an ethical environment for the development of AI. It is necessary to be transparent in the artistic creation process, and to have regulation so that there is no appropriation without consent. And generally we are slower to give these answers than technological advances, just look at the fact that we still haven't achieved efficient legislation adapted to crypto-finance, or even to regulate social networks — says Byron Mendes. — And another important point is to maintain the protagonism of human curatorship, it is they who engender the choices. AI is not a problem, but its lazy use is. You can't just replicate formulas.

Next year, the gallery will host the Brazilian School of Art and Technology (Ebat), a project that will also have units in Salvador (BA), Recife (PE), and Porto Itapoá (SC), offering free short courses in new technologies and artificial intelligence, aimed at training young people and retraining professionals in the creative industry.

— We will start with lectures, workshops, and educational training in March. The idea is to create an efficient artificial intelligence infrastructure here in Brazil. We will have the arrival of data centers, among other investments, but there is no thought given to the training of young people, who need to prepare for the transition we are going to experience — explains Mendes. — The entire production chain of arts, culture, and entertainment is being impacted by AI; we need to democratize access to these tools.

mundophone