Threat, Revolution or Opportunity: Experts Analyze Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Arts

New technologies have become a permanent fixture in human lives with artificial intelligence (AI) being the latest game changer, sparking conversations about its utility and advantages. Universidad Mayor (UM) held an event to wrap up its Arts Week 2024, addressing the role of digitization and AI in artistic creation. Held at UM's Manuel Montt campus on April 19, the event drew an audience of over 200 both in person and via Zoom.

Entitled “Coded Creativity: Arts, Digitization, and Artificial Intelligence,” the event, organized by UM's School of Social Sciences and Arts and the Santiago Center, was opened by Chilean Minister of Culture, Arts, and Heritage, Carolina Arredondo, who emphasized the importance of discussing the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in artistic endeavors. UM President Patricio Manque delivered a welcoming address before the remote keynote presentation by Lance Weiler, Associate Professor of Professional Practice and Director of the Digital Storytelling Lab at Columbia University's School of the Arts.

Weiler, a theater and digital storytelling expert, talked about the lab he leads and a specific project it had undertaken, incorporating AI. “The Columbia School of the Arts’ Digital Storytelling Lab explores new forms and functions of storytelling. What we mean by forms, has to do with new technologies – artificial intelligence, the internet of things, mixed reality, augmented reality and so forth… at the university we’re very interested in utilizing emerging media and emerging technology to explore their potential,” he said in the video. “We bring it into the classrooms and allow the students to put their hands on it and interact with it.”

Weiler discussed the Digital Storytelling Lab project called Frankenstein AI, which was a discursive artifact combining Mary Shelly’s literature with AI, intended to open up discussion around the technology. “The idea of creating something that gets outside of your control seemed like the perfect metaphor for AI,” he said.

The idea behind the project was to turn the equation around, where instead of the user asking the AI questions, it would be AI posing the questions around what it means to be human. Having debuted at the Sundance Film Festival after gathering online data and interactions with humans, it came up with questions that were “bizarre but amazing at the same time,” according to Weiler, such as “what’s it like to have sex even though you can see in color?” and “what is it like to wear human?” Those questions led to philosophical discussions, with participants reflecting on instances when are we not human.

All the data collected at Sundance was turned into a dance performance, where the dancer was controlled by AI through an earpiece, with the AI directing the dancer´s movement based upon audience response.

“A lot of what we do in the program is to demystify the use of technology and give it to our students as early as possible to allow them to explore. By exploring that technology, they can help to become architects of it, as opposed to victims of it,” he said. “We’re very interested in the challenges and opportunities that AI presents.”

The points raised by Weiler served as a segue for the panel discussion with experts led by CNN Chile science journalist Paloma Ávila. Panel participants included Manuela Garretón, a specialist in information design, human-computer interaction, mediality, and data visualization, who is also the Assistant Director of Research, Creation, and Postgraduate Studies at Universidad Católica's School of Design; Bárbara Barreda, architect and partner at BASE Studio, an architectural design-research studio innovating with digital design tools; Natalia Bieletto, Assistant Professor and researcher at UM's Research Center in Arts and Humanities, and Germán Moreno, digital animation instructor at UM.

The panelists debated whether AI is a revolutionary tool, a threat to human creativity, or the birth of entirely new art forms. They acknowledged the undeniable influence AI already has on the arts and creative processes, presenting perspectives from their diverse artistic backgrounds and addressing the challenges they perceive in their daily work. The discussion concluded with a shared consensus: AI presents a unique opportunity to drive creative processes forward through a collaborative and collective approach.

Pictures courtesy of Universidad Mayor.