Can Artistic Integrity Be Protected In AI Age?

Pretty much, no, except in terms of consumers saying “no to buying and listening and viewing it.”

Our Opinion: Protecting artistic integrity and creativity in age of AI

Late last month, a scheduled metal and alternative rock show at a popular Lackawanna County music venue was canceled over online bickering among fans and the artists themselves.

That one-sentence summary of what happened might barely rank as newsworthy, for some.

For those in the artistic community, the entire debate centers on an existential struggle that came for them first but, someday, will have to be reckoned with by all.

To go into a little bit more detail: A handful of acts — Slapjaw, Purple Lung, DOUR and Shodemon — were scheduled to perform a Sept. 25 show at Union Vapors 570 in Dickson City. One of the bands, the Scranton-based Slapjaw, posted an image evidently generated by artificial intelligence on its social media platform to promote the show.

That’s literally it. Just an image. Not the music (at least that we know, and I have zero idea who these bands are). Just an image. Is it that big a deal? It might be if one was doing an art performance, but, I’ve used a bunch of AI images for the Sunday patriotic pinup. I do not see a problem.

The bands decided to cancel the show after a lively online discussion between critics of AI use and a Slapjaw representative devolved into “bullying,” said Ken Stucker, a co-owner of the venue. Union Vapes 570’s social media accounts became the center of a continued debate over how AI should be used in the arts when news of the cancelation hit, and Stucker vowed to create a written policy that would prohibit any act that wants to perform at his venue from using AI to promote the gig on any platform.

Only issue is, he doesn’t know how far this policy could, or should, go.

Well, it really would be simple, “no using AI to create promotion ads” if that is the way they want to go. This doesn’t have to be complicated.

It is worth wondering whether any of those can truly be achieved with the help of AI. It is also worth considering whether AI simply helps all of us enhance all three. That is why venue owners like Stucker get caught in the middle when having to develop anti-AI policies. On one hand, AI tools offer the less artistic among us to execute artistic ideas they otherwise wouldn’t have the ability to create. On another, isn’t true art based in our ability to create it without the help of computers inspired by work developed by tens of thousands of other artists?

Just because someone is artistically talented for music doesn’t mean they can do art. I don’t see what the problem is. Could it be that many are having fits over AI, going negative on it? Because a lot of those against it seem to have no problem with Today’s Hit Music! makers using tons of Autotune, not writing their own songs, and using computer generated “music” (long ago recorded bass, drums, keys, and sax) to make their songs, and then mostly lip-syncing.

Pope Leo XIV published a message on his X account stressing the Catholic Church’s desire to “renew alliances” with artistic and cultural institutions in order to “safeguard our humanity” in the face of AI’s advancement.

“In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce,” the pontiff wrote. “There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others.

Yes, but, if the “music” is coming from a computer, is that art? I can certainly understand not wanting it for an art exhibit, that would be BS. A human didn’t draw or paint or create it. But, we’re just talking about a graphic to promote a music show. Or, say, a comic or book reading. No big deal. Let’s not overdo it, guys.

In that way, artistic integrity is distinctly human, the most key cog in a world that thrives on creation. It is up to us to determine how much of it has to stay human, and the lengths we’ll go to make sure it stays that way.

Maintaining artistic integrity shouldn’t be about a rejection of all technology. But it should insist, above all else, that human intention and human effort remain at the center of that work.

Well, yeah, but, again, the way they make Today’s Hit Music! may not be AI, but, involves massive use of computers. Is integrity gone?

Meanwhile, here’s an interesting article entitled AI Is Weakening Pastors’ Authority, which brings up interesting questions about using AI to have a chatbot pray for people, to counsel you, to know you, about telling you the truth.

*That’s an AI generated graphic of me made before Twitter’s AI became only for those with the paid version, using me Jack Sparrow X persona and having posted Les Pauls. Though, mine are red and Olive Tiger. I actually do not care for a black guitar. Hard on my eyes.