Talk: AI and Images
Geoff Davis, Luba Elliott, Patrick Ehtesabian-Lichty et al.
Summary
In this Computer Arts Society talk, Geoff Davis introduces a panel on AI and images, with Luba Elliott set to trace AI art from 2015 to the present and Patrick Ehtesabian-Lichty to discuss a post-human AI exhibition. Davis notes the recent media alarm over AI safety and the longer history of debates around superintelligence, bias and ethics, while observing that artists address these issues variously. He argues that the more immediate, everyday risks may be physical and mental: sedentary posture, eye strain and the isolation that David Byrne and others link to technology. Against doomsday narratives, Davis highlights the joy many creatives feel on first using text and image generators, and distinguishes AI systems that mimic human output from earlier generative art that produces algorithmic abstractions. He surveys AI art tools from Harold Cohen’s turtle-drawn AARON to the popular but controversial Ada robot, and notes how cheap, accessible generators are now embedded in mainstream software such as Photoshop. This ease of production brings choice anxiety and a flood of imagery, yet also opens possibilities for outsider art and online communities, leaving AI art in an ambiguous, partly separate relation to the traditional gallery system.
This AI summary was generated by kimi-k2.7-code (13th August 2026).