Christie’s announces AI art auction, and not everyone is pleased

In Brief

Fine art auction house, Christie’s, has sold AI-generated art before. But soon, it plans to hold its first show dedicated solely to works created with AI, an announcement that has been met with mixed reviews.

The auction, which Christie’s is calling ‘Augmented Intelligence,’ will feature artwork from artists including Mat Dryhurst, the founder of AI startup, Spawning AI. A robot that paints live is set to be the exhibition’s centerpiece at Christie’s Rockefeller Center galleries in New York, beginning February 20.

Users on social media were quick to point out that many generative AI tools for art were trained on artists’ works without their permission. Critics argued that shows like Augmented Intelligence put this work on a pedestal, at the expense of those creating art by hand.

We’ve reached out to Christie’s for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

On the page announcing their AI art auction, @ChristiesInc is elevating DALL-E, Midjourney & Stable Diffusion – all of which were trained on mountains of artists' work without permission – without once mentioning the huge issues with this, or the sustained, loud protests from… https://t.co/5JtEkORdhr pic.twitter.com/s91DQlbyke

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