In an open letter signed by nearly 6,500 artists, calls were made for fine art auction house Christie’s to cancel its first exhibition solely dedicated to AI-created works. Despite the opposition, the show titled Augmented Intelligence proceeded as planned and reportedly exceeded expectations.
Christie’s announced that the exhibition generated over $700,000 in sales, with many pieces selling above their estimated values. The top-selling artwork was Refik Anadol’s “Machine Hallucinations — ISS Dreams — A,” a dynamic painting that uses algorithms to reimagine data from the International Space Station and satellites, fetching $277,200.
Nicole Sales Giles, Christie’s VP and director of digital art sales, expressed that the success of the show indicated that collectors appreciate “creative voices pushing the boundaries of art.”
However, not all artists share this sentiment. The letter signatories accused Christie’s of showcasing artwork created with AI models that are trained on copyrighted material without proper licensing. They claimed that this practice exploits human artists by using their work without permission to create products that compete with them.
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