Artificial Intelligence in the Creative Arts: When Can a Machine Be an Artist?
I am not going to bore you with every detail to introduce you to a new era of creativity.
Think about walking into an art gallery. You glimpse a beautiful painting — brilliant colors, hypnotic textures, unmistakable depth of feeling. You glance to read the name of the artist. But rather than a human signature, it’s an algorithm.
Art, music and novels generated by artificial intelligence are no longer science fiction. They’re everywhere. From paintings selling for millions at auction to symphonies composed by artificial intelligence and performed in concert halls, machines are becoming creators.
But here’s the bigger question: Can an AI even be an artist? Or is it a mere mirage of creativity, a parlor trick of technology impersonating human genius?
Let’s dive in.
Exploding AI Art
AI-generated art has crossed over from experimentation. It’s mainstream.
In 2018 an AI-generated painting, Portrait of Edmond de Belamy, was sold at Christie’s for $432,500. The GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks) machine learning model was used to create the artwork.
GANs operate by putting two neural networks in competition internally:
One generates images.
The other critiques the work, slowly polishing the final result into something reminiscent of classic art.
The result? AI that can produce works in the style of Van Gogh, Monet, or Picasso. It can even produce original compositions that appear human-generated.
But is that real creativity?
Can Machines Compose a Masterpiece?
Music is deeply emotional. It’s storytelling using sound. Can AI really replicate that?
AI-driven music generators such as AIVA (Artificial Intelligence Virtual Artist) and OpenAI’s MuseNet already compose symphonies, jazz, and pop songs. These systems study centuries of musical patterns and then produce new compositions using those patterns.
For example:
AIVA has written for film sound tracks.
MuseNet can compose music melding several genres — imagine Beethoven meets The Beatles.
Even pop stars are trying out A.I. In 2020, the YouTube musician Taryn Southern put out an album created entirely with Ai.
The melodies? Beautiful.
The harmonies? Flawless.
The emotion? That’s debatable.
Because while A.I. can replicate patterns, it doesn’t feel music the way people do. It doesn’t suffer heartbreak. It doesn’t experience joy. It doesn’t have a soul.
Does Writing Have a Human Voice — Can a Machine Be a Storyteller?
Novels, poetry, even journalism — AI is writing it all.
AI writing tools such as GPT-4 can write poems, short stories and even full-length novels. Indeed, there are AI-generated books being published on Amazon today without readers even realizing they weren’t written by a person.
Consider:
Intro to AI news articles, which summarise reports in seconds.
AI-written screenplays are getting used in Hollywood as guides to new screenplays.
Poetry by AI that emulates the cadence, structure and feel of well-known poets.
Sounds impressive, right? However, AI writing has its limitations.
Yes, it is capable of generating grammatically correct sentences. Yes, it is able to produce different writing styles.
But does it grasp the human experience?
Does it know what it means to fall in love? To lose someone? To dream?
That is why AI still lags behind.
What AI Can Do vs. What It Can’t
AI is incredibly powerful. But creativity isn’t only about content generation. It’s about being emotional and transposing that into a master work.
Where AI excels:
✅ Recreating artistic styles
✅ Create infinite derivative music, art and prose
✅ Speed & efficiency — AI can produce in moments, what takes a human years to learn
Where AI falls short:
❌ Emotion & depth – AI doesn’t experience as a human would
❌ Original inspiration – AI is capable of remixing but not creating ideas
❌ Context & meaning – cultural, historical and personal significance in art is perplexing to AIs
An AI model can emulate Shakespeare, but can it struggle with writer’s block?
AI can paint like Van Gogh, but can it feel what he felt?
Not yet. Maybe not ever.
The Future: Humans + AI = Collaborators
So, is AI going to replace human artists? No. But it will transform how we create.
Instead of thinking of AI as a replacement, think of it as a collaborator:
🎨 Artists leverage AI to generate ideas, refine concepts and styles.
🎵 AI tools help musicians create something new altogether rather than to write songs.
📖 Writers are using A.I. to outline plots and write dialogue.
The best artwork will be created by humans working with AI, not competing against it.
Final Thoughts: Can We Consider AI a True Artist?
AI can create art. It can compose music. It can write novels.
But can it really be an artist?
For now, the answer is no.
Because art is more than just patterns. It’s about passion.
From you who can’t be structured. It’s about soul.
And until AI is capable of feeling love, heartbreak and joy, pain it will always be lacking something
The human touch.
And that? That’s something no machine could ever replicate.”
Want More?
This is merely the beginning of our exploration of AI and creativity. So stay tuned for more pieces on how AI is transforming the quill and canvas — and why human ingenuity will always reign supreme.