Thousands of artists around the world have given a call to boycott an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based art auction event to be held in New York based Christie’s Auction House, claiming that this event represents a “mass theft of human artists’ work.”
As per a Forbes report, the auction is going to be held on February 20 amid a huge outcry from the artists’ community across the world. Already over 4,000 artists have addressed their major concerns regarding AI art auction by signing an open letter.
According to Christie’s website, the artworks that are to be auctioned have a price range from $10,000 (approximately £8,000) to $250,000 (approximately £202,000). The petition states that many of the artworks that have been shortlisted for auction were created using the AI models which are trained on copyrighted material and without the proper licenses.
The letter states that “These models and the companies behind them exploit human artists, using their work without permission or payment to develop commercial AI products that compete with them.” The artists have claimed that Christie’s is encouraging these AI models. It has also organized AI across various mediums, including paintings, sculptures, and digital art.
In response, Christie’s spokesperson Jessica Stanley highlighted that “The artists represented in this sale all have strong, existing multidisciplinary art practices, some recognized in leading museum collections. The works in this auction are using artificial intelligence to enhance their bodies of work.”
The Fairly Trained which is a non-profit organization, that certifies AI companies for data practices that respect creators’ rights founder Ed Newton Rex, has also conveyed his concern about the auction. He has questions about whether Christie’s should support these kinds of practices.
Reports state that he has highlighted that the generative AI models are developed without payment and also by applying a vast quantity of copyrighted work from different fields without approval, which allows them to produce new works in similar styles.
He further stated that “These AI models compete directly with human artists, and data indicates that human creators are “suffering” as a result. Among the artworks being sold, he identified that eight or nine artists have used these AI models.”
However, he has suggested the auction house should once sincerely rethink on its decision to sell works created using these AI model practices.
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