“The role of the artist is to ask the right questions.”
- Anton Pavlovsky, AI researcher and visual artist

It starts not with a breakthrough, but a question.

What does it mean to make something with a machine?

The question may sound technical, but it’s profoundly human. And increasingly, it’s artists - not engineers - who are offering the most nuanced answers.

Across studios, galleries, recording spaces, and writing desks, a quiet shift is underway. Artists are not simply using AI to generate content. They’re using it to interrogate assumptions, to reframe authorship, and to redefine what it means to create. This isn't about the tools. It's about the tension - the dance between constraint and freedom, between intention and randomness.

Rather than asking "what can AI do?" the more important question is: "what can we become when we collaborate with it?"

Beyond Automation: Art as Interrogation

Mainstream narratives about AI often hinge on efficiency: faster, cheaper, more scalable. But some of the most compelling creators working today reject this framework entirely. They see AI not as an assistant, but as a strange mirror - a reflection of our biases, our inputs, our forgotten digital traces.

Painter David Salle recently worked with technologist Grant Davis to train AI models on works by Giorgio de Chirico, Edward Hopper, and his own archive. The resulting images, which Salle then painted over, feel like echoes of art history filtered through a fragmented machine memory.

“It became a conversation,” Salle said. “One where neither of us - the machine or me - had all the answers.”

Yes, AI can assist. But more provocatively, it can confront. These artists aren’t chasing seamlessness. They’re chasing questions: Who trained this model? Whose hands are in the data? What patterns are we blindly repeating?

From Mimicry to Meaning

Critics of AI-generated art often point to plagiarism and mimicry. And the concern is real. But it also reveals something deeper about how we value originality.

"You start when you're young and you copy. You straight up copy."
- Austin Kleon

Mimicry has always been the seedbed of invention. Jazz was born from riffing. Renaissance painters learned by replicating their masters. Even Shakespeare sampled liberally from classical sources.

AI doesn’t change that dynamic. It amplifies it. It accelerates it. And it challenges us to ask: when does influence become theft? When does recombination become expression?

So the deeper issue becomes: who gets to shape the remix? Who holds the prompt? Who gets the final cut?

The Machine as Creative Counterpart

Singer and producer Arca has described her process with generative tools not as programming, but as “curating chaos.” Her 2021 album Kick IIII included synthetic voices and algorithmic fragments stitched together with deeply personal textures.

Arca using AI to soundtrack NYC's Museum of Modern Art

“It’s like weaving with static. And every choice I make is a refusal to let the machine finish the sentence.”

This isn’t about machines replacing people. It’s about expanding the expressive palette. When AI becomes a collaborator, a kind of unpredictable bandmate or experimental co-author - new creative terrains open.

And those terrains are shaped not by code, but by curiosity.

The Gallery as a Place of Negotiation

Art is how culture negotiates with the future. It’s not passive reception. It’s active interpretation.

That’s why artists like Siebren Versteeg matter. His generative canvases never settle on a final image. They pulse, mutate, scroll, as if painting itself were thinking. Watching his work feels less like viewing a product and more like eavesdropping on a process.

In that way, the gallery becomes less a museum and more a lab, a site of slow thinking in a fast world.

The Role of the Artist Now

Artists have always been early adopters. David Bowie predicted in 1999 that the internet would transform not just music distribution, but the very relationship between creator and audience.

“The gray space between the artist and the listener, that’s where the interesting stuff is going to happen.”
- David Bowie

We’re now entering a similar gray space with AI. And it’s artists - not ethicists, not CEOs - who may be best equipped to help us navigate it.

Because they know how to hold contradictions. Because they know how to listen. Because they know how to ask: What does it mean? Who is it for? And what happens if we get it wrong?

Closing Thought

We often ask whether AI will destroy or save creativity.

But that’s the wrong question.

The better one is this: Can we shape machines that help us become more human?

And perhaps, as artists have shown us again and again, the way forward isn’t more code.

It’s more conversation.

Note: For a deeper understanding of these artists' works and their perspectives on AI, consider exploring their official websites and recent exhibitions.