A recent Artsy survey of more than 300 gallery professionals underscores a widening gap between operational adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and cultural acceptance of AI as an artistic medium. Though galleries are integrating AI into back-office functions, artists, collectors and market professionals remain cautious of AI in the art industry. Works that blend human and machine inputs continue to complicate authorship, ownership and valuation analyses.
Soderbergh mentioned in an interview with Filmmaker Magazine that he used what sounds like generative AI to produce “thematically surreal images that occupy a dream space rather than a literal space” for his upcoming documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono. “I don’t think it’s the solution to everything, and I don’t think it’s the death of everything. We’re in the very early stages. Five years from now, we all may be going, ‘That was a fun phase.’ We may end up not using it as much as we thought we were going to.”
Source: Why are respected film-makers suddenly embracing AI?
Last week, Reese Witherspoon went viral (in the wrong way) for declaring “the AI revolution has begun” and suggesting that women should learn about the technology. “The jobs women hold are 3x more likely to be automated by AI, yet women are using AI at a rate 25% lower than men on average,” she wrote on Instagram. The post attracted a fair amount of backlash, with people pointing out the problems associated with data centers and intellectual property, and accusing Witherspoon of being paid by AI companies to promote generative tools.
Source: Reese Witherspoon Confronts Backlash Over AI Support
Welcoming AI and introducing DreamUp resulted in significant backlash from its community, and a number of artists left the platform entirely. But Levy says any claim that dA has lost artists and/or that it’s dying is “a convenient web troll narrative” that’s also dead wrong. “Let’s address this ridiculous nonsense once and for all. There has been no ‘downfall of DeviantArt,’ nor any mass exodus,” he wrote.
Source: deviantART says artists made $23 million on its platform last year, was 100 right to embrace AI
Until recently, to determine the origins of different elements of a painting, art experts relied on their own analyses of the minute details of brushstrokes, Jackie Flynn Mogensen reports for Scientific American. But this method is rife with error and has led to numerous misattributions over the centuries. The new study, led by anthropologist Andrew Van Horn of Purdue University, employed artificial intelligence to try to paint a more accurate picture of a painting’s history.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani saw renewed interest in his short-lived rap career after his mayoral candidacy. The music he recorded as Young Cardamom and Mr. Cardamom earned him $1,643 in royalties last year, according to The New York Times. But he actually had recent success as a rapper even before his mayoral run, reporting another $1,267 in royalties in 2024, while he was a member of the New York State Assembly.
Source: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Earned Over $1,600 in Rap Royalties Last Year
Deezer announced on Monday that AI-generated tracks now represent 44% of all new music uploaded to its platform. The company said it’s receiving almost 75,000 AI-generated tracks per day and more than two million per month. The consumption of AI-generated music on the platform is still very low, at 1-3% of total streams, and 85% of these streams are detected as fraudulent and demonetized by the company.
Source: Deezer says 44% of songs uploaded to its platform daily are AI-generated
On Friday, the Authors Guild took a dive into how the numbers break down. According to papers filed by attorneys for the authors, 440,490, or 91.3%, of the eligible works had been claimed by last month’s deadline, compared to what the Guild says is a typical 10% rate in most class action lawsuits. That 91% rate is a huge increase over 54% of claims attorneys for the class reported on March 19.
A verified editorial photograph with full chain-of-custody provenance sits in the same licensing catalog, at the same price point, as an AI-composite that looks vaguely similar. Behind a paywall, whether it’s a stock subscription or a news outlet, all content is treated equally. You pay for access, and everything inside costs the same. The photograph’s relationship to reality, its evidentiary weight, its verifiable origin, none of this is priced.
Source: Why Authentic Visual Content Isn’t Paid More — And What Would Change That
Disney has eliminated its entire home entertainment division in a sweeping round of layoffs that intensified concerns over the long-term viability of physical media formats such as DVDs and Blu-ray discs according to a report from The Wrap. Its complete dissolution marks a stark departure from an era when physical discs generated substantial supplemental revenue for studios, often through elaborate collector’s editions featuring bonus features, behind-the-scenes documentaries, and exclusive artwork that streaming services cannot replicate.
Source: Disney Fires The Entire Team Managing Its DVD & Blu-ray Sales