Can AI-Generated Art be Considered Real Art?

Can AI-Generated Art be Considered Real Art?

I was struck yesterday by the comments I found on a LinkedIn post (post in comments). The post in question highlighted a series of images generated by AI. This type of image is created using an image generation model like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, DALL-E. But they also have the particularity of using an additional model called ControlNet which guides the first.

The problem with image generation guided only by the prompt is that we can't always produce exactly the scene, posture or pattern we have in mind. ControlNet partially solves this problem by reinforcing control. For postures, you've certainly seen videos of Greek statues dancing on social media. For patterns, it has been used to create these images with geometric illusions. Some have even described this trend as "Controllism".

But here's the thing, there are a huge number of comments that essentially say these images are uninteresting, they weren't created by humans, there is no artistic intent, so it's not art.

It made me think... On one hand I understand these kinds of reactions but on the other I can't help but think these people wouldn't have had the same speech if they didn't know it was AI-generated.

Just like last year, the judges of the "Colorado State Fair's annual fine art competition" didn't know Jason M. Allen's work "Théâtre d'Opéra Spatial" was created using AI when they awarded it first prize.

In fact, it's impossible on some works to tell the difference between human or AI production.

Also, it's not entirely true that it's not at all created by humans. Behind an image, there is a prompt and you have to iterate a lot before finding the right one, before finding the right parameter settings, etc. It's a process that can take hours or even days. So behind it there is someone giving that famous artistic intent and gradually improving their composition.

Moreover, the AI was trained on a huge number of artworks to learn to generate images, so it makes a synthesis of the production of several people (even if that's a point that can be problematic).

I know many artists and art lovers feel a bit cheated by AI, but I don't think we need to get into some kind of battle. The technology is here now, we have to work with it and learn to use it.

Of course, there are still many problems to be solved regarding creations... but don't AI advances offer an opportunity to rethink our relationship with creation?