Attribution, Responsibility and AI Art
Wednesday, 22 January 2025, 16:00-18:00
Senate House, Room 349 (Click to register)
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This paper will examine attribution for AI art, framed through responsibility. I will present two problems we seem to face with AI generated works – first that some people seem less willing to praise someone when they’ve used AI to make a work, and second that people seem to be concerned that artists may have had their images used in training, and yet receive no credit for this. I will make use of the concept of aesthetic responsibility (Wolf, 2016) to explain the first issue. I will then argue that the concept of aesthetic responsibility as characterised by Wolf is flawed – as it does not overlap in all cases with the responsibility that artists have towards their works. I will propose an additional category of responsibility which I call artistic responsibility. I put forward that this distinction can help us understand a variety of artworks, in particular AI art, where I will argue that aesthetic responsibility and artistic responsibility also do not fully overlap. This, I will suggest, opens the door for data subjects to be attributed with a form of responsibility for AI works that resemble their art, even where they are not involved in (or even aware of) the process of making them.
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Following NHS guidance, all attendees are strongly encouraged to be vaccinated (including boosters) against Covid-19, unless medically exempt. Our group is diverse; please continue to be considerate of those who wear face coverings and those who don’t. Thank you.