Avery Slater says art and technology have always been connected. She said the curation of images from text within generative AI machines might be the clearest indication as to where art is headed.
Slater, a research lead at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto, discussed the latest research in generative AI and its most recent multimodal forms of generativity in a recent President’s Lecture Series at Humber College’s North Campus.
Slater, a research lead at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto, addressed the history of machine learning and the works of Walter Benjamin and Johannes Vermeer to describe how our view of reality is increasingly dependent on the results of machines.
Slater holds a doctorate in English literature from Cornell University and has conducted her postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania and The University of Texas at Austin.
She said the future of art has reached a pivotal moment where one can’t distinguish between this being a new crisis or a new rendition of an old crisis.
“How might synthetic image generation through machine learning reintroduce us to the old problems of mechanical reproduction of images and their impact on human creativity?” she asked.
Slater deliberated on the idea that machines can create art in a realm where text and image are completely intertwined, which inevitably raises concern about humans’ ability to be original.
She discussed how reality can become elusive when machines create art and the mechanical essence behind seemingly real images.
“Generative AI is not a tool, but a machine,” she said. “Which is why it is important that we recognize our sense of reality can be increasingly dependent on the production of these machines.”
Slater argued although the art world is at a significant threshold, it is still human.
“The creation of art is something essentially human,” she said. “Perhaps we will all become artists in the coming cyberutopia.”
She highlighted the fragility of the evolution of art and how it can grow in different directions.
“Will art continue to develop like an ecosystem with ever-expanding niches for survival or will art increasingly operate on monoculture?” she asked.
An attendee wondered what the definitive difference is between a true artist and AI, Slater urged the recognition of the collective nature behind art.
“What makes art human? Enjoying it,” she said. “If it fundamentally challenges us and the result is enjoyable, then the art is human.”
Among the audience was Isabella Coppola, a student from the School Within a College Program (SWAC) at Humber, where students can earn secondary school credits and college-delivered dual credits on a college campus.
“I’m definitely going to walk out with new lessons and more of a different view on AI-generated things,” Coppola said. “In terms of using AI to generate art, I think being creative and original is way more effective in school and outside of school.”
Slater said people can’t always see-through AI, and that the perception of these machines can taint the concept of originality.