Should AI Democratize Art?

While AI-generated art has been controversial since AI tools became widely available, OpenAI’s introduction of an updated version of its image generator in ChatGPT has brought a fresh round of scrutiny. Many have been particularly critical of a trend where users generate images in the style of Studio Ghibli movies, arguing that the images created by AI in the signature style are soulless, derivative, and even insulting, given that Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki has explicitly stated his dislike of AI and AI-generated art. As users experiment with the tools, new trends have cropped up – such as the one where users create doll versions of themselves – alongside new criticism. Of course, there are evergreen worries around AI use in general, and AI art trends have only exacerbated concerns around the devaluation of artists and massive increases in energy consumption.

Not everyone has been so critical. Some commentators and communities online have defended AI as a creative tool, and feel resentful when others accuse them of creating “slop.” One such defender of AI-generated art is none other than Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. In a recent interview Altman acknowledged that although the onset of AI image generation must be “a little bit of a bummer” for artists, it nevertheless has been beneficial for those who might not otherwise have the time or resources to create or commission art:

“I think the democratization of creating content has been a big net win for society… And this is something that I very deeply believe about the power of technology, which is giving everyone more tools, making things easier, lowering the barriers to entry, does significantly increase the number of people that can contribute to society and we all benefit from that overall.”

Altman claims that AI can democratize the creation of art. But is democratization always a good thing, and is it enough to justify AI-generated art in light of its criticisms?

What does it mean to “democratize” something, anyway? We can say that something has become democratized when it has been made available to most or all people in a society who wouldn’t have had access to it otherwise. For example, one of the touted benefits of widespread internet access was an increase in the democratization of knowledge, whereby many more people could not only consume but also contribute to knowledge production. Although there have certainly been downsides to letting everyone share their views with everyone else, the internet has removed many barriers to knowledge dissemination, and allowed for a much wider range of voices to be heard.

Altman seems to be arguing that AI will bring similar benefits in terms of the creation of art. Not all people are artists, after all, and so having access to AI image-generating tools could provide many more people with the opportunity to express themselves creatively. As a result, society could benefit from many more creative voices in ways that it would not have been able to otherwise.

However, we can ask two questions about Altman’s argument. First, does art need to be democratized? And second, does AI democratize art in a way that’s worth pursuing?

Many critics of AI-generated art answer the first question in the negative. For example, it’s common to find online commentators who note that instead of using an AI tool to generate art one could simply pick up a pencil, paintbrush, or any other artistic tool and medium instead. Art is thus already democratized: nothing is preventing the vast majority of people from creating art and sharing it with the world, the argument goes, they are simply unwilling to learn how to do so.

Of course, there is still a barrier to entry for most people when it comes to creating art that accurately expresses their creative visions. A lot of people have simply not had training or experience creating art, and so cannot bring their artistic visions to life. In this sense, there is a way in which artistic creations are still out of reach for most people.

This is perhaps more in line with what Altman and many AI art supporters have in mind when they say that AI democratizes art: it democratizes the creation of artistic creations that look impressive or more accurately capture one’s ideas by significantly lowering the barriers for the majority of people. But now we face our second question: is this kind of democratization desirable?

Consider an analogy to another very undemocratized endeavor: playing basketball at a high level. For most people, there are few barriers to playing some form of basketball, but there are only a select few who can play it well. What it takes to play at the highest levels of basketball is partly decided by one’s genetics, but arguably many people could be much better at basketball if they put in more time and practice.

Given this inequality among the people who do play basketball well and those who don’t but want to, we can ask: when is it desirable to democratize opportunities to play basketball? Here’s a possible answer: when it creates opportunities for those who lack them due to factors outside of their control. For example, someone might want to play basketball but be unable to because there are no basketball courts in their neighborhood or opportunities to play with others. In these situations, we should want to help reduce barriers to entry, say by investing in social programs and infrastructure.

One way that democratization is desirable, then, is when it helps to rectify injustice. This is one of the reasons why the democratization of knowledge via the creation of the internet was such an important ideal: it would help provide a voice to those who would not have been able to have been heard otherwise, given that they lacked the means to disseminate their knowledge in other ways.

However, the kind of basketball democratization that looks to create social programs and infrastructure does not necessarily address the barriers that prevent some people from playing basketball well. We then might want to democratize basketball playing in another way: we could, for example, give every NBA hopeful special prosthetics to allow them to jump higher or shoot the ball more accurately, which would lower the bar for entry into competitive basketball for a huge number of people. This kind of democratization attempts to even the playing field by providing opportunities to participate that people wouldn’t have had otherwise by compensating for a lack of skill.

While the first kind of democratization – the one that attempts to rectify an injustice – seems desirable, the second kind – the one that merely compensates for lack of skill – does not typically seem to be worth pursuing. The type of democratization promised by AI seems to fall into the second category: for the vast majority of those who use AI to create art, the barriers to their meaningful artistic expression are a lack of talent or practice, not because they have been unjustly denied opportunities.

There is another component of Altman’s claim, though: that society will benefit from people being able to create art much more easily. Here is a potential argument: say I generally lack artistic ability, but I believe I have good ideas for a work of art. AI can then help bring that idea to life, and other people may then be able to benefit from experiencing it, in a way that they would not have been able to otherwise. Is it not valuable, then, to remove the barriers that prevent potentially great art from being put out into the world?

Here, though, the question of how much a person is involved in the creation of AI-generated art becomes important. AI image generators do not so facilitate a person’s creation of artistic media but instead create those media on a person’s behalf. The results might be something interesting or entertaining or inspiring, and it might be beneficial to society to be more interested, entertained, or inspired. These benefits, however, are not attributable to democratization: AI does not lower barriers for people, it replaces them.

This is not to say that all AI-generated art is necessarily devoid of value. However, the argument that attempts to justify AI-generated art by appealing to democratization ultimately falters: AI can certainly create more art, but if it democratizes the creation of art, it doesn’t do so in a way that’s worth pursuing.