Robot 'Artists' Muddy the Meaning of Art

When Oxford art gallery director Aidan Meller and his team created Ai-Da, a human-form robot that can draw and paint using “machine learning” algorithms, they sought to challenge commonly held ideas of what art is.¹ Their website claims that the idea that “art is entirely a human affair” is no longer appropriate and that “Ai-Da creates art because art no longer has to be restrained by the requirement of human agency alone.”² (They also claim that machines and algorithms are replacing human agency, an error I may address separately. Here I want to focus on their claims about art.)

Meller and his team’s achievement in designing and building a machine capable of creating intricate, original images and “learning” to do so in a range of styles is impressive. I commend them on their hard work and their contribution to the development of computer and robotics technology.

That said, their claims about Ai-Da’s creations evidence a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature and function of art. . . .

About Thomas Walker-Werth

Thomas Walker-Werth is associate editor of The Objective Standard. He is an Ayn Rand Fellow with Foundation for Economic Education's Hazlitt Project. He holds a master’s degree in music from Oxford Brookes University. His hobbies and interests include travel, aviation, photography, and science. To see more of his work, visit www.walker-werth.com.

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