Jo Lawson-Tancred’s lucid and illuminating AI and the Art Market, for Lund Humphries’ ‘Hot Topics in the Art World’ could not be more timely. In the past few days alone an AI/robot generated work has sold for over $1 million at Sotheby’s; ArtTactic produced Hiscox Art and AI Report continues to gain traction; and AI tech looking to supplement or supplant human expertise in traditional industry practices continue to proliferate. AI is the topic of the moment, no matter how resistant the often tech phobic art industry remains. Lawson-Tancred provides a perfect guide to the main issues and debates posed by AI, and proposes the beginnings of a ‘technorealist’ approach to integrating this diverse technology into the industry.
‘AI and the Art Market’ is split into 2 main sections; using AI for existing industry practices such as authentication and valuation, and ‘AI art’ itself. In terms of industry practices, AI faces the problem of data scarcity and quality that the industry as a whole contends with – there is no sales data available for commercial art galleries, nor private sales by auction houses. This is compounded by the ‘black box’ of AI; by its very nature we do not know how the technology reaches its conclusions, nor why two programmes will come up with diametrically opposed answers. Lawson-Tancred concludes a sensible path of transparency, and using AI tools to complement and aid industry practice and expertise, rather than replace them.
‘AI art’ poses different challenges. Those galleries that are proactively embracing AI (such as Gazelli and Unit) are forging the way for collectors to understand this new medium, as well as innovating solutions to the obstacles they face, such as beautiful home display, and technological maintenance and aftercare. The more pressing ethical questions come from AI’s generative methods, where the technology acquires the data sets it is trained upon (and whether you can meaningfully withdraw consent after your images are used, or prevent them being used), and who owns the copyright of any images generated by AI – machine or artist. There are no clear solutions yet, and it’s unclear what the best way forward should be.
With a background in art, journalism and machine learning, Lawson-Tancred is a rarely qualified person to write this guide (though this rarity is likely to lessen in the near future). She demonstrates an excellent understanding of her readers and their current knowledge level; while citing an astonishing range of cutting edge market, data, and AI research and experts (with ArtTactic being a prominent source, both in terms of the Hiscox report and an interview with COO Lindsay Dewar) without talking down to her readers or buying into an unrealistic ‘techno optimism’. AI and the Art Market is a clear eyed entry point to what is going to be a seismic shift in the industry whether we like it or not, and Lawson-Tancred is going to be an authoritative guiding voice as we move forward.
To find out more about ArtTactic and our work on AI, please see the Hiscox Art and AI Report. For more information about accessing these, or any of our other reports, please email lindsay@arttactic.com.
You can read more of our ‘Hot Topics in the Art World’ reviews here.