Many artists have begun to employ what is known as “neural network software” to produce works of art in recent years.
Users feed existing photographs into the software, which is built to evaluate them, learn a certain style, and generate new images for artists to curate. Artists may create a variety of unique and emotive visuals by modifying the inputs and settings of these models.
This piece has gotten a lot of attention because it has been shown in galleries, talked about in the news, and sold at two high-profile art auctions. As a creative writer, I’m always excited to see artists use new technology to make new ways to express themselves.
However, like earlier ground-breaking art movements, neural network art presents tough questions: How do we think about authorship and ownership when these artworks are created by a diverse range of creative people and algorithms? How can we guarantee that all artists are treated fairly?
All of this software can be found online for free, so digital artists can try it out and then publish their own results and changes. On Twitter, there is a creative community of neural network artists who talk about the results of their experiments and the latest developments and disagreements.
Existing laws and customs cover circumstances when artwork is made via cooperation or remix. It’s commonly believed that an artist may claim ownership merely by choosing a final picture, however they should be honest about the sources wherever feasible. The allegations of theft seem to be similar to those leveled against traditional appropriation artists such as Andy Warhol and Richard Prince, who famously expanded and manipulated other users’ Instagram postings.
These neural network efforts, on the other hand, seem to be a distinct kind of work. The contributions of the neural network model and the other site users are inextricably linked to the outcome. There does not seem to be a single contributor who is “the artist.”
With the speed at which new models of the brain are being made, these problems will only get worse as more fantastic, strange, and inspiring images come out.