Is machine learning “revolutionising” the Arts?

Abstract

Although the Arts have a long history of incorporating technology––analogue and digital, emerging and retro––into artistic practice, artists have generally been considered automation-proof. Until recently––as recent successes in machine learning (ML) research in the past ten years have given rise to a new wave of interest in the complete automatability of creativity, a final frontier for a maximalist vision for AI-driven automation. Narratives featuring fully autonomous algorithmic “artists” fuelled the hype surrounding machine learning. But what has been happening on the ground in the arts?