Is AI art really art?

For our purposes, I will restrict our consideration of art to visual art. Let's start by examining what art is—a question whose answer has evolved dramatically throughout history. While I won't attempt to chronicle the entire trajectory of art, several pivotal developments deserve mention.

In medieval Europe, art primarily served devotional or functional purposes and was regarded as a craft. During the Renaissance (14th–16th centuries), artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo emphasized realistic representation, technical mastery (perspective, anatomy), and beauty, though devotional and utilitarian aspects remained significant.

The 19th century Romanticism movement and the emergence of "l'art pour l'art" ("art for art's sake"), championed by Théophile Gautier and later Walter Pater, argued that art need not justify itself through moral or utilitarian aims—its sole purpose could be beauty or expressing the artist's vision.

By the late 19th century, Impressionists like Monet and Renoir challenged conventional representation with loose brushwork and vibrant colors that captured fleeting moments and perceptual experiences rather than meticulous detail.

The 20th century witnessed an explosion of artistic movements that repeatedly redefined art's boundaries. Abstract Expressionism abandoned representational content entirely. Pop Art elevated mundane objects to artistic status—not for their beauty but for their cultural significance—as with Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans or Marcel Duchamp's provocative "Fountain" (1917), a signed, mass-produced urinal that fundamentally challenged what constitutes art.

This period also dismantled another cornerstone of traditional art: the necessity for technical skill and painstaking craft. Jackson Pollock's drip paintings of the late 1940s exemplified this shift. Today, a significant portion of contemporary art requires minimal technical ability—single-colored canvases, simple geometric forms, or representational work that deliberately eschews refined technique.

I've limited this overview to Western art traditions, but broadening our scope would reveal even more profound variations in what different cultures and periods have considered art.

What Makes Something Art?

Given this historical fluidity, I propose that art requires three essential characteristics:

1. Intentionality: Created specifically to be viewed, contemplated, and experienced as art.
2. Non-utilitarian purpose: Not created for practical use (though it may have secondary practical functions).
3. Transcendent meaning: Capable of evoking meaning or emotion beyond its material existence. Importantly, this meaning may differ from what the artist intended—interpretation remains open.

AI Art Through This Lens

Applying these criteria to AI-generated imagery reveals nuance. Not all AI-generated images qualify as art. Someone casually experimenting with an AI image generator with no intention for public viewing is not creating art in this framework.

However, when an artist deliberately uses AI tools with artistic intent, refines prompts, curates outputs, and presents the work for aesthetic contemplation, the resulting creations certainly qualify as art.

In my own practice, I create AI-assisted work specifically to be viewed and experienced by others, with no utilitarian purpose. Each piece carries meaning in my conception and execution. I accompany every work I offer with contextual narrative that suggests interpretive pathways, though viewers remain free to find their own meaning.

The Question of Authorship

This raises profound questions about authorship and creativity. If art requires intentionality, who possesses that intention in AI art—the algorithm, its developers, or the person guiding it? The answer likely involves a collaborative relationship unique to this emerging medium.

When I craft and refine detailed prompts, select from various outputs, and post-process the results, I'm engaging in creative direction that shapes the final work. The AI functions as both a tool and a collaborator, extending my creative capabilities in ways reminiscent of how photography once extended the possibilities of visual representation.

In a later installment, I will explain my creative process, including how I use generative AI and other tools.

Skill in AI Art

Critics often question whether AI art demonstrates skill. But we have already established that contemporary art has moved beyond technical virtuosity as a requirement, so why should AI art be held to different standards? The skill now lies in prompt engineering, curation, conceptual development, and contextual framing.

Moreover, the democratisation of image creation through AI tools parallels how photography made image-making more accessible in the 19th century. Initially dismissed as mechanical reproduction lacking artistic merit, photography eventually gained recognition as a legitimate art form with its own aesthetic possibilities.

In my next installment, I will explore the ethical implications of training AI on existing artworks and the thorny questions of compensation this raises.