AI as a Tool for Creating Art: Embracing the Legacy of Duchamp's Readymades

*This text was originally published in Portuguese in January 2024.

The subject of this text is not exactly new (last year, during NFT Brazil, in the talk we participated in with Elektra and Rai Auad, we already discussed it), but it remains a thorny issue for some.

Art and AI! So, here we go.

Art is a field of constant evolution, with each era bringing new movements, tools, and perspectives. Today, we are witnessing significant changes once again, particularly regarding tools.

NFTs and artificial intelligence have emerged as powerful tools for artists, especially digital artists. We have previously discussed NFTs, and in this article, we will focus on AI.

This transformative technology is not just a new medium but a collaborator, a co-author, challenging our notions of creativity and authorship. In our view, it echoes the revolutionary impact of Marcel Duchamp's readymades, which redefined what could be considered art, bringing this discussion back into the realm of digital art.

Marcel Duchamp introduced the concept of readymades to art—common manufactured objects that he selected and slightly modified, presenting them as art.

This act challenged traditional perceptions of artistic creation and creativity, emphasizing the artist's choice and concept over their manual skill and effort.

Duchamp's readymades became a landmark in contemporary art, paving the way for new artistic expressions.

AI art refers to pieces created with the assistance of artificial intelligence technologies in their various forms.

This encompasses a variety of practices, from algorithms that generate visual art after learning from a dataset to AI tools that collaborate with human artists to create new forms of expression. The most widespread model, text-to-image, barely scratches the surface of the artistic universe AI enables.

For us, AI art is not just about the final product but also the process, involving a synergy between human intuition and creativity and machine intelligence.

The conceptual link between Duchamp's readymades and AI art lies in reevaluating the artist's role and the creative process. Just as Duchamp's readymades focused more on the idea and selection than manual skill, AI art shifts the focus from manual ability to conceptual and curatorial decisions made by the artist. These include the global concept of the work, AI training, prompt creation and refinement, and the final curation of the works presented to the world.

In this sense, AI can be seen as the modern equivalent of readymades—a tool for artistic expression through collaboration between humans and machines, questioning the boundaries of art—if such boundaries ever truly exist.

This collaboration can be compared to a dialogue, where the artist and AI contribute to and respond to each other's inputs, fostering continuous growth and leading to new, unexpected creations.

This process challenges traditional notions of originality in art. AI-generated art raises questions about authenticity, as creation is not exclusively human. AI is trained using global datasets, often involving internet content that may be copyrighted, sparking legal actions worldwide.

Issues of authorship and ownership further complicate the discussion: who is the creator of the final work—the programmer, the AI-using artist, or the AI itself? More fundamentally, could the work exist without all the participants involved?

Setting aside the question of commercial rights (simpler in terms of programmers and AI—appropriate licensing suffices), regarding authorship, wouldn't it be more appropriate for all works generated with AI participation to be released under CC0 (public domain, via Creative Commons)?

While these questions demand much debate, the fact remains that AI has already opened a new realm of originality, rooted in the unique interactions between the artist and AI and the irreproducible nature of each AI-generated piece. It is a path of no return.

AI-generated artworks have begun entering galleries and auction houses, signaling growing acceptance and interest in this new art form.

Although some view it as a threat to traditional artistic values, AI-assisted art has undeniably captured popular interest, increasingly appearing in media and public exhibitions, sparking conversations about the future of art.

Several AI art projects have gained notable recognition. For instance, the 2016 project "The Next Rembrandt" used AI to create a new painting in Rembrandt's style, demonstrating AI's potential to learn and emulate classic artistic styles.

Other projects focus on more abstract and original expressions, further expanding the scope of AI art.

Thus, even though copyright infringement concerns might shape AI's usage—depending on future legal rulings globally—AI's presence in our lives and art is indelible and will only grow from here.

The future of AI in art points to a horizon of exponential growth and innovation.

Advances in AI technology will enable more sophisticated and nuanced collaborations between humans and machines. AI's potential to transform artistic expression is vast, opening new possibilities for creativity that we are only beginning to explore.

This article was also written with AI collaboration, using a customized Chat GPT that assisted in structuring topics and drafting portions of the text.