In the News: January 2023
In the News: December 2022
In the News: October 2022
As issues surrounding AI and NFTs continue to come to light, conversations about ethical uses of technology become more complex. This month, we are taking a look at stories that address the issues of data privacy in AI technology, the ongoing legal battlefield of NFTs, and digital strategies in theatre.
In the News: September 2022
In the past month, AI has been dominating arts news. As its role as a collaborator and partner in visual art projects grows in popularity, many question its ethics and even object to its use in the arts entirely. There’s no doubt of its benefit in certain contexts. For instance, in the area of cultural preservation projects, which may take humans much longer if unassisted by the technology. But, understandably so, there also seems to be a looming fear in the artist community that it will displace human artists. Many object to even calling AI-generated or AI-assisted art “art.” While the future is uncertain concerning the legality and ownership of such “artwork,” these conversations are important to have. And it is vital to stay informed on the various issues involving AI in art, both good and bad, to see how the law adapts.
Arts Organizations & Using the AI Stack
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) was ranked number one in 2022 for Artificial Intelligence Programs by U.S. News and World Report. Incorporating CMU’s AI lessons is critical for all industries but particularly those that are historically considered to be “non-technical fields.” Within these fields, the ones who thrive will be those who incorporate at least the lower levels of the stack, namely data management, but an understanding of each layer of the stack will provide industries with a road map to understand how they can increase the efficiency and output of their organization’s business processes.
In the News: July 2022
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!
How Technology Facilitates Culture Heritage Restoration and Preservation
This article presented projects and examples that have exemplified great progress in cultural heritage preservation. As these technologies continue to develop and experts in the field become more knowledgable and adept at using these technologies, there is a positive prospect that continually enhancing technologies will deliver further achievement in cultural heritage preservation and digitalization by human inventions and under human supervision.
Predictive Modeling for Smarter Fundraising
Nonprofit fundraisers are continually searching for efficient systems to discover, approach, solicit, and measure support from prospects. The market for fundraising software is over-saturated with business management technology that is constantly evolving. An increasingly prevalent trend in startup software is the integration of artificial intelligence technology, which has become more popular today thanks to greater access to data volumes, sophisticated algorithms, and improvements in computing power. The technology, if truly effective with the right organization’s data, harnesses the potential to shape how we prioritize our time with donors.
The Necessary Diversification of Pervasive Recommendation Algorithms
Artificial intelligence in the arts is growing increasingly more complex. It is 2022, and robots are co-creating art, NFTs are celebrating and confusing art consumers around the world, and at least 85% of Americans have smartphones that give immediate access to endless amounts of streaming content. However, AI has flaws. This article covers the recommendation algorithms built to support content delivery for this majority, their cultural implications, and bias control.
Navigating the Ethics of Using AI for Donor Solicitation
AI has been slowing encroaching on every facet of modern life. It runs our phones, it navigates our vehicles, and has even began finishing our sentences. As of now, its integration into our everyday life has been mundane. Since AI operates most effectively behind the scenes and is difficult to explain to the average consumer, most products that utilize it do not necessarily draw much attention to it. Negative connotations among the public may prevent business from directly or overtly acknowledging the use of AI in their products or administration, but it certainly does not stop them from utilizing it. AI is bolstering many forms of business management technology, and the nonprofit sector is starting to reap its benefits. With so much of nonprofits reputations relying on trust and good faith connections between stakeholders, donors, and staff, what happens when AI is introduced into the dynamic?
Can Computers Be Creative? A Look at AI Use in Music Composition
When we think about AI, it generally is with some amount of wariness. We’ve all seen too many science-fiction movies where sentient robots take over the world, but we’re mostly certain that the creativity needed for these sentient beings to overtake us doesn’t exist. Artists, musicians, and creatives especially have historically been comfortable with the knowledge that their livelihoods were not in danger of being replaced by AI because of the inherent creativity necessary in those industries… until now.
Living in a Deepfake World
Deepfakes, or AI-generated synthetic media, are becoming increasingly prominent in the digital age and are being used across industries more frequently than ever before. Unlike common uses of AI that modify existing media given, AI that generate Deepfakes attempt to simulate that media, often using an individual’s likeness as a source of AI learning. Deepfakes can be a fun experiment for swapping faces, but they present a wide variety of malicious uses that has permanently altered the trust and engagement of media. Thus, society must continue to challenge the validity of sources and find new ways to protect media and the truth.
Could It Be Sentience or Just Expert Coding? The Emerging Role of Robots in the Arts
Few innovations represent the intersection of humanity and technology more famously than that of the robot. Like art, robots are the result of humanity’s urge to create something new in its own image – and, also like art, they have become an inescapable part of our world. In a post-pandemic world whose inhabitants have become accustomed to virtual experiences, these robotic arts roles, including facilitating virtual museum visits, performing through a computer program rather than a script, and creating what maybe approaching original and creative art, are probably here to stay.
AI Art and the Nature of Creation
Mobile AR Avatar Chatbots: Exploring the Evolving AI and AR Combination
Cultural organizations consistently question how to connect the public to information in meaningful ways. As an emerging technology, mobile AR avatar chatbots combine AI and AR capabilities to create interactive and engaging tools for visitors. Examples of mobile AR avatar chatbots in cultural organizations can provide guidance for applying these evolving technologies.
Opportunity or Challenge? Artificial Intelligence for Museum Audience Engagement
To improve museum operations, museum management is increasingly taking advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to understand their collection data, their visitors, and their exhibitions. Audience engagement is one of the most significant factors that museums need to consider in their operations: it is an implicit element that connects people to collections and should be achieved based on a deep understanding of visitors, collections, and exhibitions. Within the past few years, AI technologies have shown their potential to bring previously inaccessible insights to museums based in three main areas: machine learning, chatbots, and neural networks.
Preserving AI-Powered Art as Time-Based Media and Computer-Based Art
As innovation with using artificial intelligence in art making continues, museums’ conservation practices must also evolve. Continuing my research on AI art preservation, this article will narrow down the subjects to AI-powered art since it deviates further from what traditional conservation practices apply to. Unlike static digital artworks printed on canvas, AI-powered art always has temporal attributes, presents constant variation through an algorithm, and relies on digital files and equipment that runs continually. Although current studies have not focused on AI-powered art, it is worthwhile to see how ideas and practices of digital art preservation—such as those at the Guggenheim—are transforming in ways that could help preserve AI art in the future. Since manufacturers' innovation will quickly outdate museums’ technology supporting such art and it will be hard to tell when the doomed obsoletion will happen, being proactive is essential.
The Environment Surrounding Facial Recognition: Do the Benefits Outweigh Security Risks?
In the arts space, there has been varying responses to the potential uses and harms of facial recognition. On the positive end, artists such as Peter Shoukry have embraced how this technology can amplify an audience’s experience through interactivity with a piece. Beyond the creation of art, facial recognition has been used to aid in research. Yet, despite these projects that embrace facial recognition technology, there has been recognizable consumer backlash due to privacy worries.
AI-assisted and AI-powered Art: Different Challenges for Digital Preservation
Artists are among the many professions that are embracing artificial intelligence. AI is beginning to undertake tedious repetitive work, without replacing human’s creativity. Recently, the art market has displayed an interest in purchasing AI art. Christies sold Edmond de Belamy, an algorithm-generated painting, and Sotheby’s sold Memories of Passersby I, an AI video installation, at $432,500 and $51,012, respectively. With a rapidly increasing variety of AI art being created and transacted, the need to preserve such art in differentiated ways is emerging.