Digital dilemma: Does AI help or harm the creative community?

It can write emails, essays and even songs. It has created award-winning pieces of art, and it’s one reason that Hollywood is on strike. That’s right—today’s podcast episode is about artificial intelligence.

Generative AI programs such as ChatGPT, DALL-E and Midjourney are worrying artists of all kinds about the future of art. Is AI coming for artists’ jobs and livelihood, or is it a helpful tool pushing art to a new horizon?

Jason Allen used generative AI to create his work “Théâtre d'Opéra Spatial,” which won the Colorado State Fair’s annual fine art competition in 2022, making news headlines. He says artists should be excited and more open to working with AI as a new artistic medium that can help break down barriers and democratize art for everyone. On the other side, Molly Crabapple, award-winning artist and writer, says artists—and everyone—should be concerned about generative AI, arguing that these programs are not only stealing from, but “sucking the lifeblood,” from living artists. Additionally, she contends that the limited creativity of AI art programs will ultimately impoverish human culture. Listen to the Doha Debates Podcast as our guests debate the controversy surrounding AI art, the economics of artificial intelligence and the future of art around the world.

Doha Debates Podcast is a production of Doha Debates and FP Studios. This episode is hosted by Joshua Johnson. Thoughts on this conversation? Let us know! Follow us everywhere @DohaDebates and join the post-episode discussion in our YouTube comments.