Generative AI and the Arts : An exploration of the Social and Cultural Impact of Generative AI in the Visual Arts

Sammanfattning

This thesis aims to expand the discussion on the potential influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the visual arts and artists, focusing on the role of generative AI on the production of artworks. The study aims to reflect how generative systems may affect the production of art, the understanding of the creative process behind any result as well as the appreciation, or lack thereof, of artworks produced by generative AI systems. For this research, a mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining elements such as individual interviews with three experts in the visual arts and two questionnaires of participants in between the ages of 18 to 64. Results on the analysis of the questionnaires’ responses seems to point to the fact that AI-generated art is received as less authentic and/or valuable, thus significantly impacting any audience’s appreciation and blurring the understanding of the creative process. However, the results also demonstrated a strong correlation between an interest (or curiosity) of AI-generated artwork and age demographics: usually younger generations of respondents indicated that a collaboration with AI systems could produce art which can lead to significant developments in Western culture, concerning the arts. The findings aim to open up a discussion on how audiences perceive AI-generated art in contrast to human art. Furthermore, to share with the reader the potential significance, culturally and sociologically, of this new advent on Artificial Intelligence and its ever-growing presence in many visual arts fields. The study aims to contribute to the literature by providing primarily qualitative insights into the always evolving arts in the digital age, and striving to strike up a conversation on the larger social and cultural perception of large-scale AI models and its marketable perils. Nonetheless, further research is recommended in order to explore, in a much grander scale, the long-term effects of AI-generative models on the arts across diverse demographic groups and cultural contexts.