A MODERN AESTHETIC

Artists are vexed with Google for using their art to train AI. But from the tensions, a new art revolution, one bigger than Impressionism, may well emerge

- Anthony Cuthbertson

In 1872, Claude Monet sat down at his easel in Le Havre and painted what he would later call Impression, Sunrise. Critics initially mocked the painting for its visible brushstrokes and seemingly unfinished composition, but it birthed a movement that would revolutionise art.

Impressionism came in response to the emergence of photography, which offered the promise of replicating landscapes and portraits in far more realistic detail than even the most masterful painter. Now, 150 years later, artists are once again confronted by a new technology that is disrupting not just painting, but every artistic field.

Artificial intelligence is remarkable at generating everything from songs to videos at a prolific rate, and it is already proving to be both inspiring and infuriating for artists. This week, a group of photographers, cartoonists and other visual artists launched legal action against Google for allegedly using their work to train its AI image generator “without consent, credit, or compensation”. It is the latest of dozens of similar lawsuits.

However, a brand new artistic movement may well emerge from these tensions and disputes. What the camera did for Impressionism could well be what AI is about to do for a coming art revolution. In 2022, an AI-generated picture won an art prize at the Colorado State Fair. While some artists were indignant, the winner was unrepentant. “Art is dead, dude,” he told The New York Times. “It’s over. AI won. Humans lost.”

While many of the artworks used to train generative AI models such as Dall-E and Midjourney are by long-dead artists, others are by those who are still living.