Can AI make art?

😎 Happy Friday, y’all
Issue #163: Norm cascades, saying goodbye, and getting into the puzzle mindset
By Scott Lamb

Before we go any further, snap poll question for you: Do you believe AI is capable of generating art? Keep your answer in mind, we’ll come back to it shortly.

A version of that question was at the heart of a controversy last week, centered on NaNoWriMo, aka the organization behind National Novel Writing Month. In a (since updated) statement on the group’s site, they said they “neither explicitly support nor condemn any approach to writing, including the use of tools that leverage AI,” though they earlier touted AI-assisted writing as a way to combat classicism and ableism in publishing. They argued, essentially, that not all writers have the resources or abilities to create high-quality prose on their own — and that’s where AI comes in.

Writers weren’t happy. On Medium, Rochelle Deans (who’s been participating in NaNoWriMo since 2017), spelled out her disagreement with the accessibility issue and cut to the creative heart of the matter like this:

“Some disabled people use AI tools” is used to insult anyone who is anti-AI and ignore what should be the only issue with AI in the setting of writing a novel in a month: write the novel yourself.

I asked Deans what she thought of the group’s slightly softened follow-up statement (they backed off the classist/ableist language), and she said, “I notice neither their statement nor their note outright disallows AI-generated text.”

For Deans and many writers, it’s the generative part of AI that’s disqualifying for art, a position really well articulated last week by writer Ted Chiang in the New Yorker, under the headline “Why AI isn’t going to make art.” Chiang’s argument centers on how the choices that a writer (or painter, or musician) makes are central to what we call art, and simply aren’t a part of what happens when AI tools get involved.

The counter, hinted at in part of NaNoWriMo’s statement but more fully spelled out in this Thomas Smith story, is that AI is a tool, much the same as a typewriter or a paintbrush, and that focusing on the artist turns the discussion into one about the purity of art, and “doesn’t allow for discussion or contextualization of the very real and very troubling questions emerging around generative AI and authorship, provenance, ownership, and even the law.”

Wherever you fall on that spectrum (going back to our snap poll above), what we’re really seeing is a cultural shift, where norms around AI are rapidly forming (something called a “norm cascade”), and the passion of the debate shows just how clear those norms are becoming. So coming back to the initial question, where do you stand? Did any of the above change your mind? As these norms become clearer, platforms like Medium have taken a clear no, thank you stance, but where do you stand?

From the archive

In 2016, writer and filmmaker Kestrin Pantera wrote about her friend’s decision to end her life during the final stages of her struggle with ALS, shortly after the End of Life Options Act made it legal for her to do so in California. Pantera’s piece, “The Art of Departure,” is one of the most moving, humane depictions of an intentional end-of-life ceremony I’ve ever read (her friend, Betsy, framed it as a “re-birth” ceremony). Pantera doesn’t shy away from the complex issues surrounding the event: “At one point, I remember [a friend] asked Betsy if it was hard to plan her own death, to which she responded, ‘Dying is easy. Try living in this body. That’s hard.’ After that, I didn’t look back.”

But neither does she sentimentalize or try to tie things up with a bow. This line in particular is still sitting with me days after reading it: “Death has no answers, it just holds up a mirror and asks who you are and who you want to be.”

Your daily dose of practical wisdom: about solving problems

Stuck on an issue at work/in your life that you just can’t seem to find a way forward on? Reframe it — instead of thinking of it as a problem, look at it as puzzle to solve. This will engage your curiosity, leading to a better mindset for coming up with a solution.

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Edited and produced by Harris Sockel & Carly Rose Gillis

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