At a recent exhibition in Copenhagen, an unusual host greeted visitors in a dark room. A jaguar, named Huk, watched the crowd, selected individuals, and shared stories about her life in the Bolivian Amazon. This AI-driven creature was the brainchild of Bolivian Australian artist Violeta Ayala, created during her residency at Mila, a leading AI research center.
These residencies, hosted by tech labs, museums, or academic centers, provide artists with tools, computing power, and collaboration opportunities to explore AI creatively. Ayala remarked, “My goal was to build a robot that could represent something more than human; something incorruptible.” Her innovative use of AI highlights a growing trend: artist residencies that empower creators with AI tools, influencing how this technology is perceived by the public, lawmakers, and courts.
The expansion of AI art residencies has been rapid, with new programs emerging globally, including the Max Planck Institute and the SETI Institute. Technologists often regard these residencies as a form of soft power. Artworks from these programs have been showcased in prestigious galleries like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Villa Albertine, a French American cultural organization, recently launched a dedicated AI track, adding four new residents annually. Announced at an AI summit in Paris with French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, the initiative is backed by Fidji Simo, CEO of OpenAI applications. Mohamed Bouabdallah, Villa Albertine’s director, explained, “We’re not choosing sides so much as opening space for inquiry. Some residents may critique AI or explore its risks.”
In 2024, Villa Albertine hosted the Arts in the Age of AI summit, attracting over 500 attendees, including representatives from OpenAI, Mozilla, SAG-AFTRA, and copyright offices from the US and France. Bouabdallah emphasized that residencies aim to select the artist, not just their work. “Even if someone uses AI extensively, they must articulate their intent. It’s not just about output—it’s about authorship. The tool must be behind the human.”
This cultural framing promotes artistic production and influences public perception of AI art, often countering negative views. Trystan Goetze, an ethicist and director at Cornell University, noted, “An AI developer might want to change minds about what’s legitimate by packaging the use of AI in a form that resembles traditional artistic practice.”
While residencies support specific artists, they don’t address broader AI art concerns. “Changing the context from random users prompting models in Discord to formal residencies doesn’t alter the core issues,” Goetze stated. Legal questions surrounding authorship and compensation remain unresolved. In the US, class-action lawsuits against Stability AI, Midjourney, and others question whether generative models trained on copyrighted work constitute fair use.
Public sentiment could shape these boundaries in court. If AI-generated art is seen as derivative or exploitative, it becomes challenging to defend its legitimacy in policy or law. A similar situation occurred in 1908 when the US Supreme Court ruled that piano rolls weren’t subject to copyright. Public backlash led to the 1909 Copyright Act, introducing compulsory licensing for mechanical reproductions.
Goetze pointed out, “These models do have a recognizable aesthetic. The more we’re exposed to these visuals, the more ‘normal’ they might seem.” Such normalization could soften resistance not only to AI art but also to AI in other fields.
Bouabdallah remarked, “There’s always been debate around inspiration versus plagiarism. The real value here is giving artists the space to grapple with that themselves.” Ayala added, “The problem is not that AI copies — humans copy constantly — it’s that the benefits are not distributed equally: the big companies benefit most.”
Despite challenges, Ayala views residencies as vital for experimentation. “We can’t just critique that AI was built by privileged men; we have to actively build alternatives,” she said. “It’s not about what I want AI to be: it already is what it is. We’re transitioning as a species in how we relate, remember, and co-create.”
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Note: This article is inspired by content from https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/689693/ai-art-residencies-get-artists-using-generative-tech. It has been rephrased for originality. Images are credited to the original source.