July has been a whirlwind of a month at the intersection of art and technology. From possible successful legislation on data privacy in the US, to the Italian government putting its foot down on NFT sales, or just an AI making uncanny valley art that is starting to get a little too real, a lot has happened in the world. The spread of articles below give a glimpse into a small portion of the interesting events that have occurred this month!
A New Wave of Data Privacy: Bi-partisan bills rarely are passed in the United States in this era, especially when it comes to tech legislation. Contrary to this standard, a bill for the American Data Privacy and Protection Act was passed in June. This past month, the bill has undergone change and has a real possibility of becoming law. It proposes to restrict how companies collect data, in so as they can only collect data for one of 17 specific reasons listed in the bill (i.e. preventing fraud or completing transactions). This would be the first real and concrete federal digital privacy law implemented in the United States.
When AI-Generated Art is too Good: For those on social media, you have probably seen the trend of typing in a hyper-specific prompt into a software, and having a series of poor, yet accurate AI-generated images that fit the description. Well, that is a less powerful by-product of DALL-E, an AI created by OpenAI that generates impressive images of what the user desires. The product is not currently available to the public due to fears for it being handled by those who desire to spread misinformation, although they have opened a waitlist for users who want to try out the software (it currently has over a million names). The organization created a set rules that forbids it to generate certain images, but with its expanded access, there is worry that the rules will be worked around, and misinformation will easily be spread.
Italian Government Intervenes in the NFT Sale of a Michelangelo: A NFT copy of Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo was sold for €240,000 by the company Cinello, who partnered with the Galleria degli Uffizi through a 5-year contract. While this contract has been in place for a while, the sale has sparked discussion as Cinello made €140,000 with the deal, and the gallery (the actual owner of the physical work) made €70,000. The conversation made its way to the Italian government, who has voiced concern about the ownership of cultural content and the legal implications of having the digital or physical rights to an artwork.
NFT Art and Traditional Art Collide: There are a handful of NFT artists who have made millions off of their work. Even with success, most critics refuse to call NFTs art, let alone their creators artists. Now that NFT age has become less fruitful, one of the most famous NFT artists, Beeple (alias for Mike Winkelmann) is stepping out of digital art into the traditional art world. His work was auctioned off at Christie’s and he has toured the world’s museums. Currently, Beeple is working to create different types of art, mainly physical exhibition pieces with some technological element. However, as he begins a new era in the physical art world, his presence is not fully welcome or legitimized by new colleagues.