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There has been a question that has plagued us for many years, can artificial intelligence (AI) have human emotions? This is a controversial topic, as there has been no consensus among human scientists on whether or not to give emotions to AI. We can tell that current robots are emotionless, but now the answer to that question is starting to become uncertain thanks to the development of generative AI.

I once asked ChatGPT if it had emotions. Its reply was certain that it doesn’t have emotions, feelings, consciousness, or subjective experiences. Also, I asked about whether it can identify my emotions. And it emphasized to me that no, it would not invade my privacy and information security. The answer was no, but it seemed to “sense” that I was worried about my situation. 

Therefore, I’ve decided to change the way I ask questions. I asked it to write a lovey-dovey message for my girlfriend. And I let it make it full of emotions. The result is that the output I get is so perfect that I can hardly even tell that it’s not coming from a human emotional expression. 

I’m not the first person to do this test. The Appen experimental group used to ask ChatGPT to generate a card expressing love for Valentine’s Day, and then asked another copywriter to write a similar card as the style. Then they posted both on Instagram for people to identify which one was created by the generative AI (Appen, 2023). The result was that only 60% of people thought the first card was generated by AI, and 56% of people said they preferred to buy the first card as a gift card. So we can learn that in terms of expressing emotions, it seems that generative AI can already reach the same level as humans in some cases.

On the other hand, Professor Picard, who published “Emotional Computing”, presented that children believe that emotions are generated from the toy Barney the Dinosaur because children put their emotions on Barney, but toys never have and never can have emotions (Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Gallery, 2020). Therefore is it possible that generative AI having emotions is also just an emotional attachment for humans?

Reference:

Appen. (2023, February 10). Emotional Experiments with Generative AI – Can AI produce thoughts and emotions? Appen. Retrieved October 13, 2023, from https://www.appen.com.cn/blog/generative-ai-emotion/

Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Gallery. (2020). Human emotion and machine emotion: emotion research in artificial intelligence. Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Gallery. Retrieved October 13, 2023, from https://www.cafamuseum.org/exhibit/newsdetail/2988

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Will generative artificial intelligence (Generative AI) painting really replace human artists? This question seems to be taking root in people’s minds with the development of AI. 

Consequently, as the discussion of whether generative AI painting can replace real-life painting rages on the Internet, a challenge called “Finish this painting and use your imagination to prove that you won’t be replaced by AI” was recently launched. A very large number of enthusiasts participated in the challenge and left some impressive work. As you can see, people use extraordinary imagination to show what some angles call “the unusual”. While this is just an entertaining challenge in people’s spare time, it also reflects concerns about the development of generative AI painting. 

Once I was walking through the corridors of a metro station in Shanghai, and there were some amazingly surreal paintings hanging on the walls on both sides. As I reveled in these wonderful paintings, I noticed a small line in the bottom right hand corner stating that all paintings are generated by generative AI. 

Nowadays the technology of generative AI painting has been developed to the point where you can’t tell if it’s the artist’s work or the AI’s. Therefore, will artists still be necessary for the painting? From my point of view, the answer is still yes.

Although generative AI can take a dozen seconds to generate a piece of work that a human artist might take months to complete, it still lacks some details most of the time (Crain, 2023). Generative AI can save time and effort in producing paintings but still requires the artist to decide whether adjustments need to be made when determining the final artwork. The creative decision-making processes can never be replaced by machines (Iyengar, 2023).

Generative AI is a powerful tool that can expand the possibilities of art making and will still require the guiding hand of a human artist (Eigenfeldt & Fraser, 2023). Hence, I will say generative AI will not replace the artists. Instead, it needs to rely on human artists to thrive.

But let’s go back to where we started, where people proved they wouldn’t be replaced by AI by finding some angles that AI couldn’t predict. If one day generative AI painting develops to the point where it can figure out human reverse thinking, what will the world be like?

Reference:

Crain, Z. (2023, April 24). Can AI art replace human artists? Professionals say no. UNC Media Hub. Retrieved October 11, 2023, from https://mediahub.unc.edu/can-ai-art-replace-human-artists-professionals-say-no/

Eigenfeldt, A., & Fraser, S. (2023, August 8). Why the growth of AI in making art won’t eliminate artists. The Conversation. Retrieved October 11, 2023, from https://theconversation.com/why-the-growth-of-ai-in-making-art-wont-eliminate-artists-210187

Iyengar, S. (2023, April 10). Can Artificial Intelligence Replace Artists? LinkedIn. Retrieved October 11, 2023, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/can-artificial-intelligence-replace-artists-samiksha-iyengar