AI Art and Artists: What They Are, What They Could Be, What They Should Be

Generative AI systems provoke important practical questions, but they also provoke existential anxieties, which arise in response either to the reality or the possibility of AI art made by genuinely creative AI artists. This paper first reviews recent arguments that existing AI systems do not make art and are not genuinely creative. It then argues that existential anxieties are not warranted if possible AI artists are just like human artists. Finally, it argues that, if they are not just like human artists, then we should design them to benefit us by satisfying an interest in aesthetic diversity. The upshot is that no existential anxieties are justified. In making this argument, the paper draws lessons about AI art and artists and also about our values and interests.