If you have friends passionate about art, chances are that sooner or later someone has uttered the term “Bansky,” a common mispronunciation of the famous and enigmatic street artist Banksy. It’s one of the most frequent verbal slips in the age of misused “rather than.” But have you ever tried typing “Bansky” into Google? The digital brain responds with a familiar riddle: “Did you mean Banksy…?” At this point, the question arises: how does it know? The answer might surprise many: Google knows because it is statistically the most probable correction.
The word "statistics," often relegated to dull pre-election debates or economic discussions in financial newspapers, is actually the hidden key to understanding many of today’s technological tools marketed as "Artificial Intelligence" or AI. Indeed, if we consider that the most common AI algorithms – known as sub-symbolic – are those suggesting movies on streaming platforms or analyzing product placement in supermarkets based on consumer behavior, we notice that their operation relies more on historical data analysis than on genuine intelligent reasoning. This mechanism generates a form of conformity in the responses of these "intelligences," which always provide the most probable solution.
This might be acceptable, even if calling this process "intelligent" is perhaps a stretch. But when it comes to art and creativity, things get more complicated. Artwork generated by AI software is, in fact, the result of a sort of statistical averaging derived from digesting millions of previously analyzed artworks. Consequently, the risk of encountering an automatic, somewhat derivative artist is quite real.
Often, when discussing creative algorithms, terms like “generative processes” or “generative art” come up. This raises the question of whether “generative” is the right term for this kind of process, or if it would be more accurate to refer to the statistical nature of this particular creative development.
Fortunately, there are still artists made of flesh, bones, and neurons, whose creativity—often unpredictable and illogical—can disrupt the statistical approach. One of the most interesting uses of AI is precisely relegating it to a technical tool in the hands of a sentient creator. Just like a brush or a chisel, the digital tool is used to bring to life what the artist envisions. The artwork originates in the brain, not in the brush.
“A robot must obey the orders given by human beings.” – First Law of Robotics, Isaac Asimov
