AI Not an Enemy, Young Artists Choose Collaboration with Artificial Intelligence
The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now unavoidable, as the technology has entered many industrial sectors, including the creative spaces of artists.
In a panel discussion at the ‘Art for Peace and a Better Future: Collaboration’ exhibition, two young artists, Koelo Mariam and La Ode Umar, shared their views on the presence of AI in the art world. They were united in positioning AI not as an enemy to be fought, but as a tool to aid creativity.
La Ode Umar stressed that technology is impossible to resist. For him, the rapid pace of technological development demands that humans learn to coexist with it. “We cannot fight technology. The only way is for us to live side by side with it,” said La Ode during the public discussion held at Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta, on Saturday (22/8).
Choosing to make AI a tool to assist in producing work, La Ode admitted he is not worried that AI will displace artists. He holds a strong belief in one aspect that machines do not possess: feeling. According to him, AI may be able to create images that are aesthetically perfect in terms of colour composition and beautiful form, but only humans can instil feeling into a work of art.
“AI is merely aesthetically good, but there is no feeling in it, no artist’s emotion poured into it. That feeling is what technology cannot take over,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, Mariam stated that she often uses AI as a discussion partner when designing ideas for her artwork, rather than using it to generate images.
“I do not use AI to generate visuals because I still want to learn and continue honing my artistic sensibility,” she said.
She recounted that on several occasions she has asked AI whether the message in her work is easily understood by the general public.
“I have asked AI several times, for example when I make a promo I ask, ‘As a layperson, can you grasp the meaning of this work?’ Sometimes the AI explains this and that, then it usually offers suggestions. So in the context of using AI, that is how I do it,” Mariam concluded.