The Rise of AI in the Arts: Creativity or Controversy?
Reported by Katelyn Lam
Illustrated by Mia Baukol
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming an integral part of daily life, influencing industries ranging from education to business. AI’s ability to assist in tasks such as brainstorming marketing strategies, outlining academic papers, and generating images has proven valuable.
However, as AI continues to evolve, it is also making its way into the arts, creating music compositions, visual art, literature, and even dance choreography. This raises an important question: What does AI’s growing presence mean for artists? Will creativity, authenticity, and human touch in the arts be diminished?
Alex Chung, director of the School of Cinema at George Fox University, references the film Here (2024), starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, and Kelly Reilly, as an example of AI’s role in film production. In this case, AI was used instead of traditional computer-generated imagery (CGI) and visual effects.
“I read somewhere that it saved the movie half its budget by going to AI,” Chung said.
While AI can reduce production costs, it raises concerns about its impact on human labor. Harrison Dietzman, assistant professor of creative writing, acknowledges AI’s potential to disrupt employment opportunities within creative industries.
“I think it's a threat to people's jobs and employment, but that's also historically true that every form of automation has led to the destruction and unemployment of certain industries,” Dietzman said.
From a creative standpoint, Chung believes AI’s impact depends on an artist’s experience level.
“I think AI tools can help streamline certain processes for artists who already understand foundational principles and have gone through the hard work of developing an aesthetic or taste,” Chung said. “But if you're just starting and you're just jumping to AI without actually doing hard things, your tastes and preferences will often be what the AI tells you to do.”
Dietzman raises a different concern: how audiences perceive AI-generated art compared to human-created work.
“With AI, I think the more interesting question for me is not whether or not AI will at some point be able to create something that is of the same quality as a human; it’s already doing that,” Dietzman said. “It's creating something of the same quality as a not-very-skilled human writer, but it is creating something that is of the quality of a human writer. So then I think the more interesting question is, how are we as humans perceiving the art or writing that AI produces?”
Ethical concerns surrounding AI in the arts are another significant issue. Associate Professor of Language and Literature Brooks Lampe highlights several areas of concern.
“I am aware of two or three lines of ethical critique: environmental concerns due to data center energy consumption; cultural bias and misinformation promulgation; and the theft of the labor of artists and other producers of knowledge used in training,” Lampe said. “These are all valid concerns, but I am even more concerned that inserting AI into the forefront of art and creativity will have a long-term hollowing-out effect, since it undermines the soul of art, the human-ness of art.
“We will slowly forget how to make art and that making art is what humans are meant to do,” Lampe added. “Put in ethical terms, it deteriorates our telos (purpose) as humans, much like destroying the planet through pollution.”
Chung also expresses concern about students relying on AI too early in their creative development. He emphasizes the importance of struggling through the artistic process before turning to AI as a tool.
“I’ll make my kids [students] go through a grueling process as much as possible,” Chung said. “If I can do that part well and put them in situations where they need to really wrestle and squirm, later on when they’re juniors and seniors, we start bringing more of these AI tools to them. That’s when we can see amazing things happen.”
As AI is integrated into creative fields, the discussion surrounding its role will likely persist. While AI presents opportunities for efficiency and new forms of artistic expression, it also raises ethical, economic, and philosophical concerns. The future of art may not be a question of AI versus human creativity, but rather how the two can coexist in a way that preserves the essence of artistic expression.