The Ethics of AI Art

For fans of digital art in a more traditional sense – art produced by a human who is making conscious decisions about their use of digital technologies – new trends dominating the genre have been met with some skepticism. Whereas the general public seems to have gotten on board with these shifts with little hesitation, the complexities of this new wave are not lost on those with familiarity to art, technology, or its intersection. While the emergence of these art forms dates back to the 20th century, the tail-end of the last decade has seen significant advancements in machine learning and increased visibility with easy promotion via social media. This past year, non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, caused frenzied bidding wars among its fans, and harsh criticisms from its skeptics, in part due to the environmental impact of the medium – on average, the creation of one Ethereum-based NFT, not including the computational power required in the sale process, amounts to 120.7 pounds of CO2, which is equivalent to driving a car 200 miles or 322 kilometers. However, regardless of reason, backlash from artists was minimal, with many looking to capitalize on the massive potential gains – with the exception of David Hockney, a digital artist himself and one of only two people on Earth whose work has sold for more than Beeple's $69.3 million-dollar NFT, The First 5000 Days. Hockney is responsible for the scalding take that NFTs are "silly little things" and that a better acronym would be "I.C.S. […] international crooks and swindlers."