OPINION - AI Unlikely To Replace Humans In Creating New, Beloved Art Masterpieces

ST. PETERSBURG (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 31st May, 2023) Humans are unlikely to ever develop a strong enough emotional connection with machines to admire their creations and recognize AI-generated works as masterpieces, Fabio Mastrangelo, a famous Italian-born conductor working in Russia, told Sputnik.

AI has been making inroads into the art world, the conductor recalled. In 2018, an AI artwork was sold at an auction for $432,000. In April of this year, an machine-generated image won a major photography contest, sparking a debate about AI's place in the art world. The same month, AI content was criticized for infiltrating the music industry after a song using Fake Drake and The Weeknd vocals, generated by AI, went viral after being posted on streaming platforms.

On Monday, the art world witnessed the world's first AI ballet, "Fusion." According to its producers, AI was used to inspire all aspects of the composition: starting from the concept to the score and the set design. The production is being performed by Leipzig Ballet from 29 May-8 July at the Leipzig Opera House.

"The applications of Artificial Intelligence to various creative fields and, in particular, being a musician, to the creation of new musical scores, and for the purpose of providing new ways to stage an array of shows, ballets, and operas is simply wonderful and unprecedented," Mastrangelo said.

The director proposed to imagine a recreation of the mythological world of Wagner's operatic cycle, "Der Ring des Nibelungen," through the assistance of technology, which could transport the theater audience into its magical atmosphere like a movie would. At the same time, Mastrangelo was skeptical that AI-generated works could have great artistic value beyond sheer entertainment and could elicit strong emotional responses from humans.

"Certainly, on one hand, inputting all existing classical music (symphonic, instrumental, for chamber ensembles, opera, ballet and so forth) into a computer and then give it the task of coming up with a new sensational composition the likes of Beethoven's 5th symphony or Verdi's opera masterpiece Aida is a fascinating idea.

However, I seriously doubt that the result would come even close to any masterpiece of the world's musical heritage in terms of sheer personality. After all, what makes a piece of music a Masterwork is partly connected to the admiration that we collectively experience towards a member of our global society who we consider a genius," he said.

Besides, the human brain's power to analyze, create, improvise, as well as human talent cannot be easily replicated by a machine designed to think only "within a box," the maestro noted.

"Individuals the likes of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Bizet, and many others enjoyed that rare talent of being able to retain in their brains an unbelievable amount of information and through their life-long dedication, come up with immortal musical compositions," Mastrangelo said, pointing out that delegating all human abilities to a computer seemed a "cheap way out and one more reason for the global community to show how lazy we are becoming."

The development of AI will undoubtedly become a powerful engine for the enrichment of mankind and for the bettering of the overall quality of life, especially in the fields where people are dealing with extended databases and their processing, Mastrangelo said.

"In all fields of knowledge, the assistance of a hugely extended database, which virtually contains all available information or, at least, that which has been imputed in a computerized brain, means that the solution to both old a new problems could take unexpected turns for the better," the conductor concluded.