[imagesource:picryl]

A 1989 Keith Haring painting entitled Unfinished was left deliberately unfinished to “represent the vacuum left by the HIV epidemic” – which also claimed Haring’s life a few months later.

An overzealous X user has now ignited a storm of debate after using AI to complete the pop artist’s last work, and the art community is not happy.

@DonnelVillager posted an image of Unfinished Painting on 31 December 2023, with the blank spaces filled in completely using generative AI “The story behind this painting is so sad!” they wrote. “Now using AI we can complete what he couldn’t finish!” 

The post quickly sparked outrage, with people calling the move “disrespectful,” “disgusting,” and a “desecration.” Some praised the capabilities of artificial intelligence for “showing us a world without AIDS,” while others called the tweet perfect “bait” that now “rewards outrage with participation”.

The story behind this painting is so sad! 😢
Now using AI we can complete what he couldn’t finish! ❤️ https://t.co/RuASoTfFdk pic.twitter.com/uAwM6SBUGW

— Donnel (@DonnelVillager) December 31, 2023

Adding fuel to the outrage-fire, another user made use of ChatGPT to “figure out how Keith would feel” about his painting’s completion. The chatbot responded in its typical inane way, describing the AI-generated piece as “a testament to the collaborative spirit that fuels creativity and the endless possibilities of artistic expression.”

Haring’s pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. Much of his work includes sexual allusions that turned into social activism by using the images to advocate for AIDS awareness.

The use of AI in art has sparked some furious debate around copyright infringements, with generators like Midjourney easily being able to replicate and produce ‘new’ artworks by long-gone artists.

“Generative AI is hurting artists everywhere by stealing not only from our pre-existing work to build its libraries without consent, but our jobs too, and it doesn’t even do it authentically or well.” 

OpenAI has defended its creations by stating that “it would be impossible to train today’s leading AI models without using copyrighted materials.”

Regarding the Haring painting, somebody very accurately noted that “Not only does ‘completing’ the painting completely negate it of its original meaning, but spits on the tens of thousands of individuals who lost their lives to the AIDS epidemic in the ’80s and ’90s.” 

Humanity’s AI conundrum continues, but in the meantime, I am eagerly awaiting my new Van Gogh depicting a scene from our December holidays called Boozy Nights (2023).

[source:artnet]