AI is increasingly being used to make visual art. But when is an algorithmically-generated image art...and when is it just an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of pixels? Technology researchers Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna talk to a panel of artists and researchers about the hype, the ethics, and even the definitions of art when a computer is involved.

This episode was recorded in October of 2022. You can watch the video on PeerTube.

Dr. Johnathan Flowers is an assistant professor in the department of philosophy at California State University, Northridge. His research interest is at the intersection of American Pragmatism, Philosophy of Disability, and Philosophy of Race, Gender and Sexuality as they apply to socio-technical systems. Flowers also explores the impacts of cultural narratives on the perception and development of sociotechnical systems.

Dr. Jennifer Lena is a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she runs the Arts Administration program. She’s published books on music genres, the legitimation of art, and the measurement of culture.

Dr. Negar Rostamzadeh is a Senior Research Scientist at Google Responsible AI team. Her recent research is at the intersection of computer vision and sociotechnical research. She studies creative computer vision technologies and the broader social impact of them. 

Kevin Roose, "An A.I.-Generated Picture Won an Art Prize. Artists Aren’t Happy."

Jo Lawson-Tancred, "Robot Artist Ai-Da Just Addressed U.K. Parliament About the Future of A.I. and ‘Terrified’ the House of Lords"

Marco Donnarumma, "AI Art Is Soft Propaganda for the Global North"

Jane Recker, "U.S. Copyright Office Rules A.I. Art Can’t Be Copyrighted"

Richard Whiddington, "Shutterstock Inks Deal With DALL-E Creator to Offer A.I.-Generated Stock Images. Not All Artists Are Rejoicing."

Stephen Cave and Kanta Dihal, "The Whiteness of AI"

Follow our guests:
Dr. Johnathan Flowers - https://twitter.com/shengokai // https://zirk.us/@shengokai
Dr. Negar Rostamzadeh - twitter.com/negar_rz
Dr. Jennifer Lena - https://twitter.com/WITWhat // https://sciences.social/@jenniferclena

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Emily

• Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
• Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender

Alex

• Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
• Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
• Twitter: @alexhanna

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Christie Taylor.