‘Mass theft’: Thousands of artists call for AI art auction to be cancelled
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Artists Demand Christie's Cancel AI Art Auction Over Theft Claims
Above: An exterior view of Christie's auction house in New York on March 21, 2022. Image copyright: Dia Dipasupil/Staff/Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images
The Facts
Christie's auction house is preparing to launch its first-ever artificial intelligence-dedicated sale from Feb. 20 to March 5, featuring 20 lots with prices ranging from $10K to $250K, including works by artists such as Refik Anadol and Holly Herndon.
More than 4K artists have signed an open letter demanding the cancellation of the auction, claiming that the auction's "models... exploit human artists."
The auction includes various mediums such as paintings, sculptures, prints, and digital art, with approximately one-quarter being digitally native works like non-fungible tokens (NFTs), spanning five decades of AI art development.
The Spin
Narrative A
The AI models used to create these artworks are built by exploiting copyrighted work without permission or payment, directly leading to the impoverishment of countless artists. These companies are engaging in mass theft of human artists' work to build commercial products that compete with and undermine original creators. The auction house's support of these practices legitimizes and encourages further exploitation of artists' intellectual property.
Narrative B
The artists featured in this auction are using AI responsibly to enhance their existing artistic practice, with most employing controlled AI trained on their own inputs. The concept that AI-generated art is theft misunderstands how the technology works, as most AI-generated images combine millions of reference points, making it impossible to attribute influence to any single artist.
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