Is the Algorithm replacing the Artist?

 The term ‘Silicon Valley’ was coined in 1971, 2 years after man first landed on the moon and several years after rival geopolitical forces had edged to the brink of, and backed away from nuclear warfare. In some respects there was grounds for optimism. Technological development was advancing at unprecedented speeds. The microchip was becoming commonplace after Texas Instruments (that’s right, the Speak and Spell people!) issued a patent for miniaturised electronic circuits. Leaving the world on the precipice of having robots doing all the work for humanity leaving us to realise our collective dreams of self actualisation.  

An AI rendering of collective self actualisation

Despite being on the edge of this brave new world, the Science Fiction of this era had been rooted the the paranoia and fear generated by the Cold War. Phillip K Dick’s novel, ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’ (the precursor for the Hollywood cultural behemoth, Bladerunner) was set in a post Nuclear 2019 San Francisco, was starkly dystopian; having survived a nuclear winter, humanity was battling the prospect of obsolescence at the hands of the replicant, a superior nietzschean ubermensch, which only fell short of replacing humanity because of a deliberate design flaw cutting its lifespan. The 1956 novel; Make Room, Make Room (which would later be committed to celluloid as Soylent Green) explored themes of corporate control, euthanasia, and an unsustainable struggle for natural resources, (as well as a hapless government agent stumbling across a deep state conspiracy… Hello?!)

Perhaps these themes are universal but also, they are disconcerting evidence of Science Fiction’s role as a modern day Nostradamus. We have passed the timeframe of Bladerunner (2019) and Soylent Green (August 2022) and have avoided nuclear war, and cannibalising the elderly( although let’s see where we are after the winter with that one), but we are on the cusp of an Artificial Intelligence revolution. In the past year, the  Guardian featured an editorial written by AI assuring us we had nothing to worry about… which is the sort of thing one might say if they wanted a lure a group of liberal intellectuals into a false sense of security. 

As well as editorials, the Washington Post regularly uses artificial intelligence to write short reports 

In all honesty, algorithmically, AI would probably have made this article more concise, cutting the fat around the dystopian Science Fiction intro adding a counterbalance with the views of technological utopians like Bill Gates or Elon Musk which I’m only not editing in because I’m using it as a point about how AI is becoming superior.

The use of AI is most resonant right now is in the visual arts, all over our social media timelines AI generated art is becoming more and more prevalent. Creating frankly bizarre, beautiful, repulsive and eye catching imagery which artists like Francis Bacon aspired to in his lifetime. Made in seconds with a click of a button. Just a few weeks ago, a CEO of a gaming company took first prize in the Colorado State Fair’s digital art contest with an AI generated piece.

AI maybe only infiltrating art and journalism now, but it has been an ever present force in shaping our minds over the past decade. 2016 is starting to be seen by historians as a seismic turning point with the UK’s exit from the EU and the election of Donald Trump as US president. Many see this shift towards populist politics as having roots in the War on Terror or the financial crash of 2008, but the role of AI in shaping political discourse shouldn’t be minimised. 

From 2013, self proclaimed ‘Global Election Management Consultancy’ Cambridge Analytica had been using AI to profile voters, particularly undecided voters, with huge success, using Facebook data which was readily available for a marginal fee as well as a vast array of different metrics. Having stumbled across the idea that people are more likely to vote if they are emotionally charged, CA went about using a range of targeted adverts, strategically placed Twitter bots and numerous algorithmically designed strategies to run election campaigns in Kenya, Malaysia, India, the US as well as a referendum on whether the U.K. should remain in the European Union. This begs the question, who is really benefitting from this technological revolution?

With Social Media awash with bot accounts and AI accounts directed by authoritarian states in order to destabilise global democracy being commonplace in today’s society, what impact will AI have on the arts? 

Arushi Kapoor, an LA based tech entrepreneur and founder of Echo Park’s Cultural Center and Art Warehouse, believes that if AI made art starts to sell for higher prices, it could de incentivise artists to take the time to produce art, this said, most artists don’t go into art to become rich. 

Where there is already an impact is on jobs, the Washington Post, the Spectator and the Telegraph are already using AI to illustrate accompanying editorials, cheaper, and quicker than using an illustrator, as the machines learn, they will get better and more illustrators will struggle for work. 

Programmes like AIVA and Soundraw are looking to dominate AI made music in a similar way, and although further behind and though currently cruder than the visual machine learning based art which is infiltrating journalism, the design industry and fine art generally; this week has seen the signing of the first AI rapper to a major label when 

FN Meka signed (albeit briefly)to Capitol Records.(FN Meka was dropped soon after due to a social media backlash about racism) 

AI Rapper FM Meka

AI is also becoming more widespread in the film industry, helping to streamline scriptwriting, automating production schedules and predicting film success, we are also starting to see films entirely produced by AI, such as Zone Out, made entirely by a Machine Learning programme called Benjamin. While AI is unlikely to win a best picture Oscar this year, AI created moving images are likely to become less Lynchian as time goes on.

All of this feeds into a bigger picture; with AI now a pervasive force in global political systems, political agendas of the parties which have paid to push their message up the algorithm, infiltrating cultural spaces, and at it's very worst stoking the division, fear and anger which led to the Q-Anon movement: without wanting to invoke the ‘slippery slope argument’, where will it stop?

Can we rely on Artificial Intelligence to respect our boundaries? What are those boundaries and who sets them? Will AI facilitate the Technological Utopianism of Back to the Future 2 (set in 2015, approaching a decade ago) or Huxley’s Brave New World?  Or is this simply part of the process of humanism becoming obsolete.