Can Artificial Intelligence Make Art?

TL;DR

This study investigates whether people accept AI-created paintings as art and whether robots can be considered artists, revealing that people accept AI art similarly to human art but are less willing to see robots as artists.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on public perception of AI art and explores factors influencing attribution of artistic intent to robots versus humans.

Findings

People accept AI and human paintings as art equally.

Less willingness to see robots as artists due to attribution of intent.

Robot paintings are judged as art at similar levels to human paintings.

Abstract

In two experiments (total N=693) we explored whether people are willing to consider paintings made by AI-driven robots as art, and robots as artists. Across the two experiments, we manipulated three factors: (i) agent type (AI-driven robot v. human agent), (ii) behavior type (intentional creation of a painting v. accidental creation), and (iii) object type (abstract v. representational painting). We found that people judge robot paintings and human painting as art to roughly the same extent. However, people are much less willing to consider robots as artists than humans, which is partially explained by the fact that they are less disposed to attribute artistic intentions to robots.