A quick answer from me is yes.
Let’s start from how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) got into our life and started to help us with art purchasing decisions.
Centuries ago, having an oil painting hanging on your wall or a sculpture next to your couch or any piece of art in your house were luxuries for the rich. They would hire gallery agents or professional art brokers to advice on what to buy to decorate their properties. Most likely they want the art pieces to be exclusive, representing their wealth and social status and preferably from a famous artist so that other people would admire them more when visiting. Even though fine arts become more accessible in recent decades because of technology advancements for both information access and physical access, there are still demands and supply not being bridged: people who cannot afford art brokers also have artistic needs and want to acquire art pieces and advices; on the other side, most art enthusiastics can barely earn a living because they are not famous and cannot afford much advertising.
Nowadays with the help of online art galleries and AI the gap is more bridged than ever. Most online galleries charge no advance payments from artists who put their art pieces on sale through the platforms. As for buyers, online galleries give them recommendations based on the buyer’s profile information, purchase and search history using ML algorithms. Fulfilling customers’ needs of more affordable art pieces and artists’ need for income, online art galleries are growing bigger and affecting more people’s art purchasing decisions.
Two years ago I helped my parents with purchasing one painting they wanted for our living room. I spent time and efforts browsing different online galleries and communicate with my parents, we end up choosing an oil painting created by an Indian lady, a young artist. Ever since I ordered the painting, I keep receiving recommendations about similar paintings and more artworks from similar artists now and then. Sometimes I ignore the emails and sometimes I actually look into them if I see anything attracting me. I have not purchased any artworks from the website ever since, but I seem to pay more attention to images similar to the painting, Indian lady artists and paintings in general in my daily life. I cannot tell how exactly my art taste is shifted by the recommendations I have been checking, but my attention to art is surely shifted more than just a bit. This kind of behavior is proven to be true in phycology, called Reticular Activating System.
I do not only receive recommendations for paintings but also, from all kinds of platforms, books, music, clothes, movies, you name it. Just think about how many times you clicked on the series or movie recommended by Netflix.
A short conclusion for myself, my art taste and probably more other preferences are surely shifted by AI and ML based recommendations. Do I want it? I do not know. Can I stop it? I do not think so. What do you think?
Sources:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/reticular-activating-system
View at Medium.com
https://www.artpal.com/
Hello Haoyu, that was definitely an interesting read on a topic I have not heard much about yet. I think the business model is great, as art is definitely something that highly depends on personal preference and AI can definitely help to save time looking at art styles you do not like. I am interested to see what will happen with the business model. Eventually it will be possible to extend it e.g. to the furniture market to match furniture design and art design?
I think with currently only art being on the platform, the AI is still very limited in the amount of information. If more purchases of different items such as also furniture and home articles would be made via the platform, or if there would be an option to enter such recent purchases, customers could receive art that does not only fit their taste but also their entire room perfectly.