The controversy surrounding Mr. Allen’s win at the Colorado state fair is not something that should be overlooked as he seems to have broken rules in many peoples eyes when he won an art competition using an AI generated image. Many people took to social media in response to Mr. Allen’s win when he posted his blue ribbon that was gracefully earned from the judges, who in fact were not informed that his work was AI generated. Upon learning this fact, the judges stated that they would’ve rewarded him with the win anyways,and thought the piece was masterful and deserved to be considered equivalent to the art created manually. However, despite the judges maintaining the decision and standing firmly on their beliefs, many people still took to social media to react and say that this was “the death of all Art”. Mr. Allen however, responds to them saying that he believes that humanity has lost the battle to the machines and therefore we should just embrace AI as a new form of art created digitally and not see it as cheating or bending the rules. My personal belief is that AI generated images should not be included in any fairs or art piece galleries of any form as it does not stay true to the validity of what art is; what I believe to be a human creation that captures the beauty of what the human mind is capable of imagining. Many would argue that if AI is to draw a painting worthy of success, it is necessary for a human’s input to be equally as creative to generate that. However, I believe that it’s not equivalent to the talent required to do hands-on work and therefore should not be on the same level and like many others believe, it can be the end of a true art form. The world has seen many changes to the ways we consume and create art, but none have created as much of a threat as AI producing new images simply from a few words that a person feeds it. I believe the artists who are scared that AI will be taking their jobs and stealing the creativity of the world from them have much to fear. As AI grows everyday and becomes more and more advanced, it’s not exactly easy to predict where its capabilities could end.
