[New York Diary] "AI Artist Appears at MoMA"

Reporting Everyday Stories from New York, USA

[Asia Economy New York=Special Correspondent Joselgina] "How far will artificial intelligence (AI) go? Can AI become an artist? Can AI's works be recognized as art?" These are the questions posed to me by the artwork 'Bi(非)Jido (Unsupervised)' that can be seen in the lobby on the first floor of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, USA.

The dazzling 3D video displayed on a massive 8-meter-high screen spanning the lobby's first and second floors seemed as if each color was alive and moving. Waves of intense colors surged from the walls, then suddenly shifted to drawing images as if it were a completely different artwork, and finally transitioned into a mechanical diagram revealing that it was an AI creation.

MoMA, known as the essence of contemporary art worldwide, introduced this work with the question, "What dreams might a machine that has seen MoMA's collection of artworks dream?" Refik Anadol (38), a first-generation AI artist from Turkey, trained AI with 138,151 modern and contemporary artworks from MoMA's collection. The creative work visualized and reinterpreted by AI based on this training is BiJido.

Reflecting the characteristics of installation art, the images change slightly every day. This is because the AI measures and inputs the day's weather, light, noise, and visitors' movements to immediately reflect them in the artwork. On a wall a little further away, visitors can see the work's explanation along with the working screen. Anadol described this work as a 'machine's dream' or 'hallucination,' saying, "From Van Gogh to Picasso to Kandinsky, amazing inspiring artists are inside the AI's dream."

When MoMA decided to exhibit this work in the lobby last November, it was hailed inside and outside the art world as a turning point accepting AI-created works as contemporary art and art. The magazine The New Yorker called BiJido "the most talked-about and controversial exhibition in New York City this winter." The New York Times (NYT) reported, "If software can create art, what is left for us humans? A frightening question."

As AI technology development accelerates, even the belief that 'creativity and art are uniquely human domains' is being shaken. Earlier, in October 2018, at Christie's auction in New York, the AI painter Obvious made history by selling the portrait 'Edmond de Belamy' for a high price, marking the first time an AI painting was auctioned. Obvious created this painting by databasing over 15,000 artworks from the 14th to 20th centuries. The final bid price was $432,500, more than 40 times the initial estimate.

Despite the high auction price at the time, evaluations of its artistic value were mixed. There were negative assessments about whether a work created by AI through imitation after learning countless image data should be considered art. As concerns grow that AI might one day replace humans, the debate continues. Is AI an artist? Can AI-created works have the emotional impact, message, and immortal value like masterpieces by great artists? What is the essence of art that makes this possible? Is creation and art truly a uniquely human domain? If so, what will be the role of humans in the future?

Visitors continue to flock daily to the first-floor lobby of MoMA to watch this work. Even on this weekday, about 40 people were enjoying BiJido throughout the first-floor lobby and the second-floor corridor. Daniel Jensen, a tourist, said, "Is this made by AI? I came without knowing anything, but there is a visual pleasure that keeps drawing me in." I nodded in agreement because I too was deeply absorbed in the constantly changing colors and movements without fully understanding their meaning. He added, "Works made by AI, songs made by AI, are ultimately just new movements emerging with the times, aren't they?"

Ga-young Lee, a Korean art major student who visits New York every season to see new exhibitions, said, "I was impressed by the advancement of technology," but shook her head at the question, 'Is AI's work art? Can AI be an artist?' Lee said, "For now, it seems to be nothing more than a technical aid. AI may replace many functional tasks, but especially in 'fine art,' where added value is emphasized and 'meaning-making' is everything, pure art completely excluding humans is difficult to exist." She explained that unless the artist uses AI as a tool, AI cannot be the ultimate subject of art.

Personally, I think this opinion still dominates. Art is a field where the usefulness of uselessness is discussed. The final touch that turns that uselessness into usefulness is ultimately achieved through human narrative and meaning-making. As Ernst Gombrich said, 'There is no such thing as art. There are only artists.' Andy Warhol's works, which repeatedly painted canned food cans, were ultimately recognized as art because of new interpretations, the artist's spirit contained within, and the historical context.

Nevertheless, the impact of AI technology development on various industries cannot be underestimated. Just look at the heated craze after the release of ChatGPT. It is unimaginable how far the expansion of AI's domain will go in the future. It could be a fear, or it could be a blessing.