Do Beetles Secure the Future of Art in an AI-Led Society?
In the event of introducing superintelligences to society, are we dooming our ability to create art?

In the realm of artificial intelligence, especially superintelligence, there is the concept of “the death of human jobs”, i.e. all means of labour will be done by robots and AI. Many people have differing thoughts and opinions on whether or not this is a good thing. A common concern for a post-labour society is “what will we do after we don’t need to work?”, and one of the answers that can be given to this is “art”. However, this creates a further concern; will there be a post-art society? Will a superintelligence blow all human art out of the water? I do not think anyone can provide a definitive answer to this concern, however I can put forward a case of why I think this is unlikely to happen.
To start, let’s define “superintelligence”, using AI Philosopher Nick Bostrom’s definition from his book Superintelligence; “any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest” [1], such as though a higher speed, a large collective network of intellects, or one that is simply “smarter” than us. I’m also going to also put forward a hypothetical, that we are in a post-labour society that most people are satisfied with, but no art has yet been created by a superintelligence, until a newly developed AI called Michelangelo is introduced. Michelangelo’s database consists of all digitally recorded art history, art techniques, and even statistics on critical receptions.
Michelangelo could create some incredibly technically impressive works for certain, but does this mean they will become every person’s favourite artist? Art is a subjective medium. People will have different opinions about the same piece, there is no right answer about how good a work is, and there are extreme examples that show this today.
Take the film Citizen Kane, which a lot of people perceive as the greatest film of all time to the point of it becoming synonymous with a magnum opus across an art field. I’m sure a for a lot of people it is their favourite, but is it everyone’s? Is it yours and your friends’? Michelangelo could produce a new Citizen Kane, but it doesn’t guarantee everyone will favour it, or even like it.
However, say that Michelangelo does create their Citizen Kane and it does become everyone’s favourite film. Is the only film you ever watch your favourite? Probably not, because most of us enjoy variety. It might not even become our personally most consumed art; I’ve only read my favourite book once.
Great art often comes about from limitations too, sometimes even self-inflicted. Budget for example; as of September 2nd 2018 the highest-budgeted film of all time is Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, adjusting for inflation [2,3]. This has not made it amongst the most critically loved films of all time (in fact on Rotten Tomatoes it is not even the most critically loved Pirates of the Caribbean film [4]). Think about how many adored low-budget films there are, often considered cult classics like The Blair Witch Project, The Evil Dead, Eraserhead, Clerks etc. Perhaps intelligence could be one of these limitations too.
All of these arguments however still are encompassed by current levels of human intelligence. The difference between us and a superintelligence is, in theory, massive. How can that be addressed with current examples? I think I may have a case for this too however, the crux for my optimism. Allow me to introduce Spike:
This is Spike. Spike is a stag beetle. As wonderful as he is, I think we can agree that in general humans are more intelligent than him overall. This doesn’t, however, obstruct that Spike is an artist.
Spike is able to carry rather proportionally large objects, and this includes pens and paintbrushes, which he has used to make some drawings and paintings, and there are many ways one may interpret this art. One may find it simply aesthetically appealing, another may find it a rather meaningful piece via the technique, or one may find it to be “just squiggles” and not be very impressed. Despite Spike’s intelligence in comparison to that of a human, you can still have this range of opinions of his art. Even if you simply enjoy the art because you think it is “a cool gimmick”, you still enjoy the art. It is possible that if a superintelligence(s) creates works of art, the human artists of the time will be akin to the animal artists of the now. I would say it is better to consider it a new variety of art, as we could still have animal art then too. Maybe even superintelligences themselves will appreciate our art the way some of us appreciate Spike’s.
None of this proves that there won’t be a death of human art, but to me this suggests it won’t occur, and why I think it unlikely. Perhaps as we get closer to developing superintelligence we will get an even more accurate answer as we understand the mechanics of it better, but for now I remain optimistic on this concept.
[1] Bostrom, N. (2016). Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (p. 22). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.22.
[2] Sylt, C. (2014, July 22). Fourth Pirates Of The Caribbean Is Most Expensive Movie Ever With Costs Of $410 Million. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2014/07/22/fourth-pirates-of-the-caribbean-is-most-expensive-movie-ever-with-costs-of-410-million/#686e628e364f [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].
[3] List of most expensive films — Most expensive films (adjusted for inflation). (2018). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_films#Most_expensive_films_(adjusted_for_inflation) [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].
[4] Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. (2011). Retrieved from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pirates_of_the_caribbean_on_stranger_tides/ [Accessed 2 Sep. 2018].
