AI-created content like art, writing, photos, and music has become really popular. But this success has also led to a strong negative reaction from some people. They don’t like AI-made art and some even say it could be the start of bad things for humans.
Why do some people dislike art made by AI? A recent study from the UBC Sauder School of Business says it’s because it challenges what it means to be human.
AI art
In the study, researchers did some experiments with AI art. In one test, people were shown two paintings and told that one was made by AI and the other by a person. In another test, they listened to two pieces of music, one said to be made by humans and the other by AI.
But here’s the twist: both artworks in each test were actually made by either AI or a person. The researchers just randomly said one was from AI and the other from a person. Still, people liked the art they thought was made by humans much more.
“We found that there is a very pervasive bias against work made by AI artists,” the researchers explain. “No matter which one is actually made by the human artist, people prefer the artwork that is labelled as human. They think it is more creative — and when they listen to music or look at paintings made by human artists, they think they are more awe-inspiring.”
Human creativity
To understand why people have this bias, the researchers checked if those who strongly believed that only humans can be creative (and that this makes us special) were more likely to dislike AI-made art. They also looked at how much people would pay for the art.
The results showed that the dislike for AI art was stronger in people who think only humans can be creative. These people were also willing to spend more money on art they believed humans had made.
“For those people, learning that AI can also be creative may be very threatening, because it challenges their worldview about what human beings are,” the researchers explain.
Artificial intelligence is already a part of our daily lives, like chatbots and voice assistants like Siri and Alexa. Lately, art made by AI has become really popular on social media. There was also a song that went viral that seemed to have the voices of famous singers like Drake and The Weeknd, but it was made by AI. This raised concerns about creativity and who owns the art, like for artists and music companies.
This study is the first of its kind to connect why some people don’t like AI-made art with ideas about humans being more important than other species and the belief that digital art threatens the idea of humans being the best at creating things.
“We should learn to appreciate the beauty and the creativity of AI. Because if we leverage AI, if we work with AI, maybe we can better develop our own creativity. Maybe we can collaborate with AI, and achieve something we cannot achieve alone,” the authors conclude. “But if we are unaware of our bias against AI, that is not possible.”
