AI-Generated Art Sparks Controversy

Digital Artist Julian Van Dieken used AI tools to generate an image "A Girl With Glowing Earrings." His artwork was one of five selected by the Mauritshuis museum in the Netherlands for an exposition paying homage to Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring." The art world was critical of this selection with Dutch artist Iris Compiet calling the selection "an insult to the legacy of Vermeer and also to any working artist. Coming from a museum, it's a real slap in the face."

In response, a Mauritshuis spokesperson said it is "not the museum to discuss if AI belongs in an art museum." This isn't the first controversy in the art world of course, with similar concerns about the use of Photoshop 20+ years ago.

While I understand a desire for 'purity in art', I wonder if that concern is truly native to art (and related fields like writing & music), or if we'll soon see pushback against AI-generated media in business fields. For instance, if an engineer wrote an application that used Github Copilot or a digital marketer wrote Ad Copy that used ChatGPT would people have a similar concern?