Art, AI and Intention

 

 

Question: can we accept the products of AI as art? 

Let's assume that we're talking about very advanced AI, which can produce really interesting novels with a unique style - 3-dimensional characters, consistent plots, interesting stories. Or masterful paintings able to create emotion in the viewer, again with a unique style. Whether AI will ever be able to create these is not the question - let's assume it can. One thing AI should not be able to do, however, is to create these things with the intention to raise said emotions - or to want to express, or communicate something.

I'll focus on literature. Would I really be able to enjoy a masterful novel created with no intention? We know that the intention of the author is not everything, but can we really do completely without it?

My idea is that we do need intention. We're looking for it, we're trying to decipher it everywhere, even in places where it doesn't exist - sometimes, even when we are aware that it doesn't exist.

I'll take two examples for this - conspiracy theories and old myths and legends. Both are attempts to insert intention into something that is intrinsically devoid of intention. In the case of myths, it's the natural world. In the case of conspiracy theories, it's usually some social reality. One conclusion is that humans need intention, and desperately so, because intention brings meaning.

The other conclusion is that we are able to invent intention and persuade ourselves that it is real.

So, even though we shouldn't be able enjoy works of art created by AI, since there is no intention behind them - we might just manage to persuade ourselves that there is intention in the mindless creations of AI. Just like we did when we first interpreted the universe with myths, when we developed rules of behavior using religion, and when we deal with weird, uncomfortable social realities by adopting conspiracy theories...