Question

• Is a “work” generated by an Artificial Intelligence-based tool art?
• Who is the author of the work?

Approach

I am working with several different products, one group enabling image generation (e.g., MidJourney tool) and the second for text (e.g., ChatGPT and WriteSonic).

Observations & Impressions:

• Each work is unique
  Speaking of MidJourney, the text to image tool, one might think that entering the same terms would generate the same results, but this is not the case. There are a few implications here. First, when you generate something you like you can’t expect to regenerate it again. Second, it limits how well one can incrementally construct an image, that is following a process of adding and removing terms to see how the image evolves. While an incremental process is not completely out of the question, and in general my approach is an incremental one, there is a high degree of randomness in the results. Having said that, there are steps that can be taken (such as reusing the same seed for the random number generator) but at this point I have not found a way to contain the variability of outcomes. I’m not sure whether this is good or bad, it just is.

• AI as a co-creator
  My relationship with MidJourney is [presently] more as a co-creator; we combine our skills. MidJourney offers skills in creating images, skills which I don’t have (beyond using a camera). I provide the skills in preparing the terms and curating the results.
  
• AI as an assistant
  I use the Chat tool as an assistant to provide basic information (often the facts) as well as a sense of the scope of a topic. How this plays out is through a series of questions and answers. I ask a question and it replies. Based on the reply, I ask another question and this continues until I run out of questions. In fact the value in this relationship may be less around what specific information the tool provides and rather simply the process of developing a series of questions or put another way, exploring the problem domain through a series of questions.
  
• Chat vs. Search
  From the consumer point of view, a search that returns 10 million results is almost useless. It means reading through dozens of results, collating the volumes of detritus to find something useful. The Chat tools collate the information for you and provide a concise answer. This turns out to be a very welcome result and enables the more collaborative approach suggested above. It saves time for the consumer; it likely costs significantly more for the provider. Having said that, I think the emergence of these chat tools signals the end of the traditional search engine that we have come to know.
  
• Quality and Reliability of results
  Each chat tool I have used cautions that it is a beta product and results may be either or both incorrect or incomplete. Confirming the validity of information suggests the reader needs to be sufficiently knowledgeable to know the results are incorrect or incomplete (which defeats the purpose) or be willing to corroborate the results in some other way. Some tools provide references to the source material they have drawn from. This is very helpful both in terms of validating results but also delving deeper. I address the completeness question by asking followup questions (many of the tools maintain a “memory” of past responses making this easier). I often ask several different chat tools the same question and compare the results. They may corroborate or contradict, but either outcome is useful.
  
• Generating [text] content
  Some of the tools are able to generate “copy” which may then be used for various purposes. One tool suggests it can write articles, blogs, landing pages, Ads, SMS Notifications, biographies, product descriptions, YouTube descriptions, real estate listings, and the list goes on. I have tried some of these, so with the caveat that I have limited experience, I will say the results are of limited value, at least for me. They are often superficial, repetitive, redundant, trite and lack any scholarly depth of value. Working with the results of a chat session, I find, is far more useful.

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