AI and Aesthetics
The Intersection of AI and Aesthetics
Generation of New Synthetic Artefacts
AI’s Influence on our Cultural Evolution
The Nature of Creativity
Consider the myriad of choices we make daily – from picking out and matching clothes to liking photos, choosing hairstyles and makeup, selecting places to visit, purchasing objects, and deciding on the music we listen to. In each of these instances, aesthetics plays a vital role in shaping our experiences, engaging our senses, and contributing to our overall satisfaction.
Aesthetics, at its core, refers to pleasurable experiences mediated by our senses. Whether it's the feel of a fabric, the visual appeal of a photograph, or the auditory delight of music, aesthetics enhances our daily encounters with the world around us.
Beyond sensory experiences, aesthetics also encompasses concepts like style and aesthetic judgments. It's not just in personal choices but also extends into our professional and creative endeavours. From creating graphs and editing photos and videos to drawing images and designing spaces and buildings, we make every day aesthetic decisions that shape the visual and sensory experiences of those who interact with our work.
Moreover, aesthetics is inclusive, as it covers both natural and human-made objects and experiences. Whether appreciating the beauty of a sunset, the design of a building, or the harmonious composition of a piece of music, aesthetics permeates every facet of our lives.
The origin of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline date back to 1750 when German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten coined the term. He derived it from the ancient Greek "aesthesis," denoting sensation or perception.
In 1790, Immanuel Kant redefined aesthetics in his work "Critics of Judgment," shaping it as the domain of subjective judgments of taste. This transformation expanded aesthetics beyond mere sensory experience, focusing more on the complexity of affective and cognitive responses to perception, and acknowledging the intricacies of human engagement with art and beauty.
The Intersection of AI and Aesthetics
Since the turn of the 21st century, computation, data analysis, and artificial intelligence have not only become integral to our daily lives but have also found their way into the aesthetic sphere.
The original vision of AI centered around the automation of cognitive processes. When discussing recent AI accomplishments, people often refer to tasks that were originally defined decades ago, such as natural speech understanding, automated translation, and object recognition in photos. However, what may be less apparent is the significant role AI now plays in shaping our cultural experiences and behaviors, actively automating the processes involved in aesthetic creation and choices.
While artists have been using algorithms in artistic creation since the 1960s, today's "cultural AI" operates on an industrial scale, integrated into devices and services used by billions. Unlike being a tool for individual artistic expression, AI has evolved into a mechanism influencing the imaginations of vast populations. Through the collection and analysis of data on cultural behaviors, AI shapes our "aesthetic self," predicting our future aesthetic decisions and preference and potentially guiding us toward choices favored by the majority.
Imagine recommendation systems guiding us through art, music, books, and movies, or the automatic editing of images and videos. In many ways, AI has emerged as a silent collaborator in our creative endeavors.
Plenty of examples can be seen in the field of music, where services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora employ AI algorithms to automatically recommend personalized music choices for users, enhancing their listening experience. Instagram's Explore tab is another example which demonstrates personalization at its best, by curating photos and videos in an automated yet personalized manner for each user, showcasing the power of AI in content curation.
Moreover, Automatic one-button photo improvement has become a standard feature in both mobile and desktop photo editing applications, driven by sophisticated AI algorithms that enhance images effortlessly. Large online fashion retailers utilize AI to provide automatic suggestions for additional clothing items, showcasing how technology permeates our aesthetic choices, even when it comes to personal style.
These systems rely on increasingly sophisticated methods to predict user preferences. Deep neural networks, for instance, learn aesthetic principles by directly observing people's choices, representing a shift from earlier methods based on compositional rules and programmers' intuition. As technology advanced, neural networks took centre stage, progressively learning semantic labels and extracting aesthetically relevant features from vast databases of liked images.
Beyond assisting in traditional forms of art consumption, AI is now actively involved in the generation of new synthetic artefacts.
In 2016, a deep-learning algorithm immersed itself into the world of Rembrandt, the 17th-century Dutch painter (PPT: insert clips from The New Rembrandt), analysing 346 known paintings to generate a brand-new portrait. The result was a masterpiece that eerily resembled an authentic Rembrandt painting. This is just one example of how AI is redefining the boundaries of artistic creation.
Since then, a new wave of algorithms has emerged, captivating audiences on platforms like YouTube. Today, YouTubers invite viewers to participate in musical "Turing Tests," challenging them to distinguish between compositions crafted by AI and those by human musicians.
Participants, in these tests, especially those with musical training, often find the task relatively easy. However, the challenge becomes intriguing when presented to naïve listeners. The blurred lines between AI-generated and human-created music open up new dimensions in our understanding of creativity and the capabilities of artificial intelligence.
In 2019, AI reached a significant milestone, leveraging the computational power of a cutting-edge smartphone model, to undertake the task of completing SCHUBERT'S "Unfinished Symphony." Notably, the collaboration also involved a composer who curated and selected the best melodies generated by the AI. This unique fusion of human curation and AI composition resulted in a rendition that adds a new layer to the conversation around the creative partnership between humans and machines.
In the same year, a collaborative effort was orchestrated by Deutsche Telekom. A team comprising international musicians and AI experts joined forces to complete BEETHOVEN'S unfinished 10th symphony. The completed symphony titled "Beethoven X - The AI Project" premiered on October 9, 2021, in Bonn.
The event was not merely a technical feat but also a tribute to Beethoven, marking the 250th anniversary of his birth. As a significant milestone, it marks the convergence of human and artificial creativity, challenging our perceptions of authorship and originality in the digital age.
Considering aesthetics involves recognizing the typically human aspects of aesthetic sensibility. Artificial systems need to grapple with the nuanced interplay of affective and cognitive responses that define human engagement with art.
Aesthetics, often deemed as quintessentially human, has long been considered as a domain which is resistant to algorithmic reduction due to its complexity. For some, art, aesthetics, and creativity stand as the pinnacle of human abilities, serving as a last defence against the seemingly unstoppable progress of AI. This intricate field becomes the ultimate testing ground for exploring the possibilities and limitations of AI.
Despite advancements, a prevailing opinion argues that AI developments merely mimic existing styles and lack true creativity. In the examples we mentioned before, computers are fed with pre-existing styles, generating variants that conform to those styles while introducing innovative elements.
It's important to note that these AI systems do not create entirely new songs or styles. While these creations might be uncannily similar to genuine artworks, they may lack the nuanced final touches that make them convincingly human. This has led to the characterization of such AI outputs as instances of "computational mannerism."– a complex imitation and reproduction of existing products of human culture. This debate highlights the ongoing discussion about the true creative capacity of AI in the artistic realm.
AI’s Influence on our Cultural Evolution
Our engagement with technology not only expands but also modifies how we create, ultimately shaping our cultural evolution. The transformative impact prompts questions about the potential of technology to push the boundaries of our knowledge concerning human cultural and artistic heritage.
In a futuristic scenario, machines could attain a precise understanding of human aesthetic preferences, registering reactions to aesthetic objects with greater accuracy than humans. They might learn to produce aesthetic artefacts, generate new creative styles, and even create genuinely new types of art and aesthetics by analysing human and cultural diversity.
Discussions on AI often highlight machines solving domains considered uniquely human or outperforming human competitors. This constant redefinition of what is truly human and intelligent raises questions about the shrinking boundaries of areas once deemed unreproducible by machines.
Concerns arise as we witness the potential narrowing of what was once considered unreproducible by machines, particularly in the aesthetic field. Several questions emerge, such as, could machines reach a point where they are deemed truly creative?
Or how might machines navigate the conceptual turn in contemporary art movements?
And what role could they play in understanding concepts like "Good taste" and "bad taste"?
Exploring systems that use data analysis raises questions about whether they tap into the unconscious structure of our culture. Additionally, we ponder the possibility of witnessing the emergence of an entirely new form of cultural production, challenging traditional notions of creativity and artistic expression.
The Nature of Creativity
When a machine replicates the works of great artists, questions arise about the nature of creativity.
What constitutes the mark of originality? How do we attribute authorship when devices, algorithms, and technological extensions reinterpret an artist's intention? The production chain, mediated by complex software interventions, challenges our understanding of where creative innovation occurs and who the true author is.
According to artist Mario Klingemann, a pioneer in AI art, AI serves as a tool under the authorial control of the human artist. In this perspective, AI is viewed as an extended aesthetic device, a sophisticated instrument deployed during the creative process.
In this context, AI's role in the arts is seen as an instance of extended aesthetics, where sophisticated devices operate under the control of human artists and programmers. However, the idea persists that we may witness the emergence of autonomous artificial creativity, holding onto the original concept of true artificial intelligence as the manifestation of autonomous and intelligent behaviour in the aesthetic domain.
Throughout history, art has evolved in tandem with the most advanced technologies of the time, from cave art to digital images. Artists continuously integrate cutting-edge technologies as creative tools, shaping the course of artistic expression.
Art propelled by AI and machine learning becomes a distinct domain in digital media art. Experts assert that AI is not a method but the amount and type of control exercised over algorithmic processes. AI art encompasses computer art and algorithmic art, where creative rules are preprogrammed by humans.
Artists view AI artworks as co-creations, where machines, following human-prescribed rules, contribute to the artistic process. Perspectives from artists like Leonel Moura, Harold Cohen, and Andy Lomas highlight the collaborative nature between artists and machines in the creative endeavour.
There are several perspectives on AI art, including non-human-centred or post-humanist views. Some see AI as an extension of ourselves, a by-product of the human quest to expand abilities. Others explore autonomy in the post-digital age, the human-with-the-machine scenario, and consider AI as a non-conscious form of cognition rooted in uncertainty.
Several studies suggest that AI could create what humans cannot due to limitations, based on a systematicity unseen in radical artwork and sees machines propelling human creativity, generating something new beyond pre-designed ideas. AI is envisioned as a source of systematic creativity that transcends human constraints.
The examples mentioned earlier involve artwork sets with repetition and low variability, characteristics that facilitate neural networks in extracting general features and generating new examples. Traditional or classical artworks, with their clear, recognizable styles and adherence to specific patterns, present a straightforward challenge for machine learning systems.
Machine learning systems excel in analysing numerous occurrences of an object type with slight variations, and extracting relevant features and patterns. This ability makes them well-suited for tasks involving conservative styles and recognized artistic traditions.
On the contrary, the generation of variants that deviate from compositional rules, similar to Duchamp’s works, presents ill-defined tasks without easy solutions. Duchamp's art, characterized by its departure from traditional rules, remains a challenge for current AI capabilities.
The cliché "My kid could have done that!" often directed at contemporary art takes an ironic turn when considering the great, stylistically complex, yet computationally scalable art of cultural tradition. The challenge for AI lies in dealing with complexity beyond well-defined problems, as exemplified by the innovative and rule-breaking artistry of figures like Duchamp.
In 2020, an undergraduate student at Princeton University harnessed the power of a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to craft traditional Chinese landscape paintings. These artworks proved capable of deceiving humans in a visual Turing test, marking a significant milestone in the encounter between AI and aesthetics.
The future may witness a shift where even experts are deceived, and AI produces artworks judged as aesthetically superior to their human counterparts. The potential for AI to master and surpass human artistic abilities poses a challenge to our traditional notions of artistic creation.
Conclusion
Aesthetics, as a fundamental element in shaping our daily experiences, constitutes pleasurable encounters mediated by our senses and extends to encompass style, aesthetic judgments, and choices in both personal and professional spheres.
The origins of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline date back to the 18th century, with Baumgarten and Kant laying the groundwork for understanding subjective judgments of taste and the complexities of human engagement with art.
The intersection of artificial intelligence and aesthetics in the 21st century has seen a transformative impact, with AI becoming a significant force in automating aesthetic creation and choices.
As we explore the dynamic relationship between AI and aesthetics, we observe the evolution of AI from mimicking existing styles to actively influencing cultural choices. AI's role in music recommendation systems, image and video editing, and even the generation of entirely new synthetic artifacts showcases its growing impact on our creative endeavours.
While debates persist on the true creative capacity of AI, recent developments, such as the completion of symphonies and the generation of AI art, challenge traditional notions of authorship, creativity, and the boundaries between human and machine in the aesthetic domain. Questions surrounding the potential for machines to understand human aesthetic preferences, produce novel creative styles, and redefine cultural production underscore the profound implications of AI on our evolving cultural and artistic heritage.
In the field of AI-generated art, discussions on the nature of creativity, authorship, and the collaborative relationship between humans and machines come to the forefront. The idea of AI as an extended aesthetic device, operating under human control during the creative process, coexists with the notion of autonomous artificial creativity, questioning the traditional concept of true artificial intelligence.
As AI art becomes a distinct domain in digital media, artists view AI as a collaborative co-creator, contributing to the artistic process under human-prescribed rules. Perspectives range from non-human-centred views to exploring autonomy in the post-digital age, positioning AI as a source of systematic creativity that transcends human constraints.
The challenges AI faces in dealing with complexity beyond well-defined problems, as seen in the innovative and rule-breaking artistry of figures like Duchamp, highlight the nuanced nature of aesthetic creation. While AI excels in tasks involving conservative styles and recognized artistic traditions, it grapples with the unconventional art forms.
The potential for AI to deceive even experts and produce aesthetically superior artworks raises questions about the future of artistic creation and the evolving role of AI in reshaping our understanding of aesthetics. In this ever-evolving landscape, the encounter between AI and aesthetics continues to push the boundaries of human creativity and challenge our traditional perspectives on art and authorship.