AI-generated art: creation, theft or simulation?

Is generative art only a recent phenomenon? What interpretative frameworks can be adopted when describing machine creativity? Can AI create works of actual value? 

Can artificial intelligence create valuable art? Can machines be creative, or do they merely simulate creativity? In an interview with journalist Ewa Szkurłat, Dr Anna Olszewska analysed the phenomenon of generative art from historical, aesthetic and social perspectives.

Dr Olszewska spoke about the early experiments of the 1960s and 1970s involving computer-generated works, pieces created on the basis of game rules and scripts, and the glitch aesthetic, which is significant in the context of digital art. In her analysis of AI-generated art, she referred to the works of Margaret A. Boden and Walter Benjamin concerning creativity and the mechanical reproduction of works of art, respectively.

During the interview, the researcher also touched upon the debate surrounding the replacement of human labour by artificial intelligence, as well as the controversy surrounding the use of cultural works to train AI systems. An important context for this part of the conversation was ‘Hyperemployment’, a project by Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana. The discussion concludes with a reflection on whether valuable art can be created by artificial intelligence, or rather in spite of it.

Dr Anna Olszewska
Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Humanities at the AGH University of Krakow. Manages the Re:Senster programme which aims to reactivate cybernetic sculpture by Edward Ihnatowicz and conducts research within the Accessibility Department and the Universal Design Lab at AGH University. Her interests focus on science and technology, as well as art history, with a particular emphasis on critical visual studies. Her latest book, Earthbound Visual Cultures (AGH University Press, 2025), explores the issue of integrating physical environments with artificial intelligence systems.

As a curator and researcher, she collaborated with numerous cultural institutions, including: National Museum in Krakow, Foundation for Visual Arts in Krakow, WRO Art Center, Tranzit.ro, Olomouc Museum of Art, Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in Lviv, and Sapporo International Art Festival.

Ewa Szkurłat
Journalist, winner of the Polish Pulitzer (for an investigative piece in 2007) and more than 60 Polish journalism awards. Her reports represented Polish Radio at the Prix Europa international festival in Berlin and the Premios Ondas in Barcelona. Nominated twice for the Ryszard Kapuściński Award. In Radio Kraków, she deals with science, ecology, and renewable energy sources.