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THIS IS THE YASMIN-DISCUSSIONS DIGEST
Today's Topics:
1. Fwd: AI: dangerous art/dangerous science (YASMIN DISCUSSIONS)
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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2019 09:23:31 -0400
From: YASMIN DISCUSSIONS <yasmin_discussions@ntlab.gr>
To: yasmin_discussions@ntlab.gr
Subject: [Yasmin_discussions] Fwd: AI: dangerous art/dangerous science
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From: Marian Mazzone <marian.mazzone@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jul 12, 2019 at 10:34 AM
Subject: AI: dangerous art/dangerous science
To: <yasmin_discussions@ntlab.gr>
Hello Yasmin listers,
Marian Mazzone here, I?m an art historian who works as a member of the Art
& AI Lab at Rutgers, and I teach the history of contemporary and new media
art.
Glad to see this discussion coming up, looking forward to hearing more from
those of us doing this work. We need to speak out more, especially in
response to the too simple and odd ideas about what AI is and what AI can
do that are often found in the press and public. As an art historian, I?ve
had to answer many questions from journalists and artists who?ve seen the
work at the lab and are unclear and/or misinformed about what AI is capable
of and its potential as a threat to human artists and art making.
Sofian Audry rightly points out how relatively ?dumb? the current AI
systems are, and how little they can actually do (versus data needed to
train, etc.). The complexity and depth of what human artists do is light
years beyond this; what AI can do is augment, work as a limited partner, be
a tool to introduce chance operations or impose medium conditions, etc.
Creation of visual images can happen, but at a comparatively low level and
only after an immense amount of machine training. For me, the greater
interest has become not arguing for the existence or quality of AI art but
learning more about how machines learn, especially something as difficult
as art. Being cognizant of how any level of creativity happens within AI is
vital.
The good art is being made by human artists who are knowledgeably using
aspects of AI to complement or subvert their own systems of creativity.
Like with the introduction of any new medium or means, experimentation and
adaptation are proceeding since the 2nd half of the 20th century forward. A
comparison with the development of photography as a medium can be helpful
at this stage. It is still early days in the use of AI for art making?.
I?ll end by returning to the idea of dangerous science, dangerous art. I
was struck by the problem of not being able to validate or confirm
scientific claims reached when AI is involved. Does it come down to a
matter of truth/not truth, a strong (necessary) binary for scientific
knowledge of the natural world? Art is not so directly black/white, but
there still exists some notion of art being ?true? in its honest
communication or expression of human experience.
So, what happens now? Is AI potentially a third player, something that
changes the binary of true/not true with the addition of a third entity
that does not conform or respond to our means of query or testing, and
makes decisions and creates on terms unknowable to human experience?
Our *modern
*ideas of truth have been based on human experience in/of the natural
world, and AI is not that. The implications of this are profound, and we?ve
barely begun to grapple with them. This may be why the use of AI in matters
of human justice, human life and liberty are so troubling?.and are an
argument for AI not to be involved in such things. Don?t know, I?m thinking
out loud here?.
****************************************************************************
Marian Mazzone is an associate professor in the Art & Architectural History
Department at the College of Charleston, teaching courses on contemporary
art and new media art. She is an affiliate of the Art & Artificial
Intelligence Lab at Rutgers University and one of the co-founders of the
Computing in the Arts major at the College of Charleston.
http://arthistory.cofc.edu/about-the-department/faculty-and-staff/mazzone.php
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End of Yasmin_discussions Digest, Vol 11, Issue 1
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