AI Art Newsletter - 31 Jan 2025
AI Art Newsletter - January 31, 2025
Breaking News: US Copyright Office Updates AI Art Policy
A significant shift has occurred in the U.S. Copyright Office’s stance on AI-assisted artwork. The new policy establishes that while AI-generated art can now receive copyright protection, creators must demonstrate substantial human creative input. This balanced approach acknowledges both technological advancement and human creativity.
Key points from the policy update:
- AI art lacking direct human creative expression cannot receive copyright protection
- Human authorship remains essential for protection
- AI is positioned as a tool rather than an autonomous creator
- Guidelines emphasize the importance of documenting human creative input
Adobe’s “Controls Era” Initiative
Adobe’s executive Alexandru Costin has introduced the concept of a “Controls Era” in AI art generation, addressing tensions between traditional digital artists and AI art creators. This development suggests upcoming changes in how AI art tools will be implemented and controlled.
Learn more about Adobe’s initiative
Upcoming Competitions & Exhibitions
The Optimus Awards AI Art Competition
- Global competition focusing on digital and new media art
- Organized by Colección SOLO More information
Digital Renaissance Exhibition 2024
- Traveling exhibition format
- Open submission process
- Multiple exhibition locations Exhibition details
Exhibition Spotlight: Art-O-Mat Installation
Ars Electronica’s “art-O-mat” installation is moving to the Museum der Moderne Salzburg in April 2024 after its successful debut at the Ars Electronica Festival 2024. The installation features:
- Machine learning algorithms creating unique artistic styles
- Interactive elements making AI processes tangible
- Focus on human-AI collaboration
TIME OUT .13 Exhibition Series
A collaboration between Ars Electronica and University of Arts Linz, featuring:
- Time-based media art
- Interactive media arts
- Platform for emerging artists Exhibition details
AI Artists News
Refik Anadol
Turkish-born artist and professor Refik Anadol is establishing a world-class AI art museum in Los Angeles. As a positive advocate for AI in arts, Anadol envisions AI not just as a technological tool but as a medium for creating beauty, marking a significant milestone in the institutional recognition of AI art.
Sougwen Chung
Highlighted in The Art Newspaper as “one of the most compelling artists working with artificial intelligence,” Chung continues to push boundaries in robot art. Her work represents growing mainstream art world interest in AI-driven creative practices.
Stephanie Dinkins
As the Kusama endowed chair in art at Stony Brook University’s College of Arts and Sciences, Dinkins recently gave a Provost’s Spotlight Talk exploring the intersection of AI and art, demonstrating the growing academic recognition of AI art practices.
Trevor Paglen
| Featured in Aperture magazine’s Winter 2024 issue “Image Worlds to Come: Photography & AI,” Paglen’s work “CLOUD #557 | Hough Line Transform; Hough Circle Transform” (2023) explores computer vision algorithms applied to cloud imagery. The piece was exhibited at Altman Siegel gallery in San Francisco. |
Alexander Reben
Appointed as OpenAI’s first artist in residence in December 2024, Reben’s appointment marks a significant step in bridging the gap between AI technology and artistic practice. This residency represents OpenAI’s commitment to understanding their AI tools’ creative potential through artistic collaboration.
Recent LinkedIn Updates
Dr. Pinar Yoldas’ Post
A personal update from Dr. Pinar Yoldas sharing her departure from various social media platforms (Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, and X/Twitter) and choosing to be more active on LinkedIn. She shares a personal moment from a Death Valley trip during a long weekend, expressing appreciation for American culture, nature, and history. The post concludes with a Lunar New Year greeting. This is a casual, personal post that breaks from typical professional LinkedIn content like achievement announcements or speaking engagements.
Grit Wolany’s Post
A creative post marking the transition from the Year of the Dragon to the Year of the Snake in the Chinese Lunar calendar, featuring artistic “visual poems.” The post is culturally relevant and appears to showcase original artistic content inspired by Chinese New Year traditions.
Marjana Prifti Skenduli’s Post
The author shares a personal encounter at Davos 2025 with AI expert Gary Marcus during a Washington Post event. They had an engaging discussion about AI, during which Marcus shared an amusing anecdote about being mistaken for a sculptor. The interaction concluded with Marcus promising to share his book with the author. The post provides an authentic glimpse into networking at Davos while touching on AI topics. Tagged with #Davos2025, #WEF25, #AIEthics, this appears to be a genuine professional interaction rather than promotional content.
📹 Aaron Jones’ Post
Aaron Jones discusses how DeepSeek’s recent achievements challenge the conventional belief that AI development requires massive computing resources and enormous capital. He uses his company, Yepic AI, as an example of building competitive AI models efficiently with limited resources. The post argues that this development marks a significant shift in the AI startup ecosystem, suggesting that future AI success will depend more on efficient resource use and smart engineering rather than just having access to extensive computing power. The post emphasizes how this could democratize AI development and change the competitive landscape for startups versus large companies.
Joana Chicau’s Post
The author is announcing their upcoming presentation at Fosdem about their PhD research project titled “Human-Computer Counter-Choreographies”. They’re inviting connections to meet up at the event. More details can be found at: https://lnkd.in/ehycep_X. While this is a self-promotional post, it’s relevant as it shares academic research presentation information and networking opportunities.
Alexander Mordvintsev’s Post
The post appears to be a poetic/artistic commentary about technology, specifically referencing electronic/digital systems using biological metaphors (“heart”, “veins”). It includes a link (https://znah.net/tt09) which appears to be related to the artistic/technical content. The metaphorical language suggests this is likely sharing creative or experimental technical work rather than being promotional content.
Yuqian Sun’s Post
Yuqian Sun’s game “1001 Nights” won 2nd place at the BIG Indie Pitch during Pocket Gamer Connects. The game is an AI-driven story-crafting experience where players must survive by telling stories to an AI king. A game demo is available at: https://lnkd.in/gQXkWxMi. While this is a promotional announcement, it’s relevant as it shares a significant achievement in game development and offers access to try the game.
Oonagh Murphy’s Post
Oonagh Murphy announces her attendance and speaking engagement at REMIX Summits (focused on Culture, Tech & Entrepreneurship) during the last week of January. She, along with Rachel Walker and Laura Herman, will be presenting on day two about AI, Art, and Gallery topics using a Venn diagram format. The post is a networking announcement inviting connections to meet up at the event.
Yuqian Sun’s Post
The author gave a talk at Conflux Residency at Harvard University last week, thanking Yetong Xin for the invitation. The speaker expressed enjoyment of the experience. (Note: Specific date not provided, and no URLs were included in the original post)
Nathan Benaich’s Post
Nathan Benaich discusses how Deepseek (a Chinese open-source AI model) is providing AI startups with a cost-effective alternative to more expensive American AI models. He shares that a portfolio company has already switched from Meta’s LLaMA 3 to a Chinese open-source alternative, suggesting this trend could improve startups’ profitability through better unit economics. The post highlights the growing influence of Chinese AI models in the global AI ecosystem and their potential cost advantages for businesses. #chineseai #genai #llm
Kirell Benzi’s Post
Kirell Benzi announces the opening of “Shapes: Patterns in Art and Science” exhibition at EPFL Pavilions, featuring his work on sphere packing and E8 polytope. The interactive installation combines mathematics, art, and technology, using iPad and SpaceMouse for navigating high-dimensional visualizations. The exhibition runs from January 17 to March 9, 2025, at EPFL Pavilions, Pavilion A. More information available at go.epfl.ch/Shapes2025. The post is informative and relevant to academic and artistic communities interested in the intersection of mathematics and visual arts.
Anna Dumitriu’s Post
Anna Dumitriu announces her role as a guest professor at Diriyah Art Futures for the week. The post is a professional update about her academic/artistic engagement at this art institution. While brief, it provides relevant information about her current professional activities in Diriyah.
Memo Akten’s Post
Memo Akten shares a poetic excerpt from “SUPERRADIANCE” (superradiance.net), a collaborative art project with Katie Peyton Hofstadter. The post features artistic text about soil, forests, and breathing, along with project credits including music by Machinefabriek/Rutger Zuydervelt. The project received support from multiple institutions including Tribeca Film Festival, Getty PST, and others. While promotional in nature, it’s relevant as it showcases an AI/digital art project exploring themes of nature and ecology through generative technology.
Eilidh Macdonald’s Post
Announcement for the Whitehead lectures series at Goldsmiths, University of London on Cognition, Computation and Culture. The next lecture features Dr. Chrisantha Fernando from Google DeepMind presenting “The Struggle for Mutual Awareness (or What it’s like to be a Thermostat)” on Wednesday, January 22 at 4pm. Lectures are held weekly on Wednesdays during term time.
Earlier this week, I wrote a piece with Peter Zhegin on opportunities for applying AI in the creative industries, published as How to take AI far beyond gaming in VentureBeat. As part of our research, we looked at 94 example company, corporate and academic initiatives using AI for search/discovery,
This is an informative post about AI applications in creative industries, based on a VentureBeat article co-authored with Peter Zhegin. The authors analyzed 94 companies and initiatives using AI across four main categories:
Or, if you put them all together, my experience of the NIPS conference can be summarized as the image below. Read along if you prefer words, details and creative applications of AI.
The post is a detailed recap of the author’s experience at the NIPS (Neural Information Processing Systems) conference in 2016. Key highlights include:
One week to go before our ART x TECH hackathon at Central Working Whitechapel. It’s time to release the challenges from our project partners Artfinder, Sedition, Vastari and Gitoon.
This post announces an upcoming ART x TECH hackathon at Central Working Whitechapel, detailing challenges from four project partners:
Scott Belsky’s Post
Scott Belsky announces his departure from Adobe after 7 years (following Adobe’s acquisition of Behance) to join A24 as a partner. He’ll transition into filmmaking and storytelling while maintaining ties with Adobe as a future tech partner. During his Adobe tenure, he helped grow Behance to over 50M members and led various digital innovations. In his new role, he’ll be NYC-based, continue investing/advising founders, writing “Implications,” and serving on the Atlassian board. The post demonstrates a significant career transition while acknowledging Adobe’s impact and expressing optimism about future collaborations.
Helen Dunnett FRSA’s Post
Helen Dunnett shares her experience attending the #REMIXLDN Conference at Royal Academy of Arts through Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Digital Accelerator Programme. The event featured discussions on AI in galleries, city art, and museum innovation. Key speakers included Oonagh Murphy discussing AI’s impact on arts, artist Yinka Illori on urban canvas, and Esme Ward on Manchester Museum’s community initiatives. The post highlights networking with fellow Digital Advisors and emphasizes valuable insights gained from the conference’s various sessions. Event date is referenced as “yesterday” relative to the post date.
Kiran Bhatia, Ph.D.’s Post
The post discusses insights shared at MIT Reality Forum 2025, focusing on AI development and the Global South’s impact on technology. The speaker emphasizes three key points: the need to amplify Global South voices in AI development, address privacy and creativity needs, and recognize these users as active participants rather than passive consumers. The post highlights how users from the Global South are using technology for various purposes including leisure, learning, and romance, while dealing with unique challenges related to privacy, gender identities, and social norms. The speaker also mentions meeting women tech leaders from the Global South who are working on humanizing AI. The post includes relevant hashtags: #NextGenTech #AIForAll #InclusiveInnovation #mitrealityhack. Date referenced: 2025 (MIT Reality Forum).
Digital Culture Network’s Post
A recap of Day 2 at REMIXLDN conference held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The post highlights three key sessions: Harmeet Chagger-Khan’s talk on immersive storytelling from The Space, a panel discussion on AI’s impact on creative industries with Oonagh Murphy, Laura Herman, and Rachel Walker, and Drake Music’s presentation on accessible music technology with John Kelly, Sally Currie, and Tim Yates. The post celebrates the successful conclusion of the REMIX Summit focusing on culture, technology, and entrepreneurship.
Nick Marchand’s Post
Nick Marchand announces his new role as Director of Global Engagement at Museums Victoria in Melbourne. This appears to be a legitimate career update announcement.
Madhushree Kamak’s Post
Madhushree Kamak shares her experience as a speaker and panelist at the Brooks Fellowship Symposium at Tate Museum. She presented research on how emerging technologies are impacting museum visitor experiences and participated in a panel discussion on socially engaged practices. The event brought together fellows from the past 10 years and was organized by Tate, Delfina Foundation, and the Rory and Elizabeth Brooks Foundation. The event provided networking opportunities with fellow alumni and Tate staff members Renata Smialek and Jayne Herringshaw.
Gina Neff’s Post
Gina Neff shared her appearance on the Andrew Marr show where she discussed Deepseek, AI, geopolitics, and innovation with co-guest Verity Harding. The post is a professional update about participating in a media interview/discussion, highlighting thought leadership in AI and technology topics.
Øredev’s Post
The post discusses Laura Herman’s presentation at Øredev about AI’s influence on art and creativity. Key points include AI’s role as a curator of creative content, its impact on human artists, and the importance of ethical AI implementation. The post highlights the Content Authenticity Initiative and C2PA’s work on creating standards for content authenticity. It concludes with thought-provoking questions about machine learning, creativity, and the future of AI in art. The presentation can be viewed at: https://lnkd.in/dtT2PXdU. The post provides valuable insights into the intersection of AI and creative expression while raising important questions about trust, empowerment, and protection in the digital art space.
Charlotte Diamond’s Post
Charlotte Diamond announces her new position as a Specialist in Global High Jewelry Strategy at Tiffany & Co.’s New York City office. The post is a standard professional career update that provides clear information about a job transition. Hashtags used: #TiffanyAndCo #TiffanyCareers #LifeatTiffany
Oonagh Murphy’s Post
The post is a networking request from Oonagh Murphy who will be attending the American Alliance of Museums conference in Los Angeles in May. She’s seeking recommendations for meetings and visits related to Art, AI, ML, Data, and Digital initiatives, including both policy and practice aspects. She’s particularly interested in connecting with professionals in these fields and finding relevant places to visit during her first trip to LA. This is a legitimate professional networking post rather than promotional content, with a clear purpose of building industry connections and maximizing the value of her conference trip.
Ashley Zlatinov’s Post
Anthropic is hiring for their product public policy team, seeking an experienced policy expert to connect product development with policy stakeholders and contribute to responsible AI development practices. Interested candidates can apply here: https://lnkd.in/gxsMNvzm. This appears to be a legitimate job posting from a company representative focused on AI policy roles.
Latest AI Art Preprints
Cross-Cultural Fashion Design via Interactive Large Language Models and
Diffusion Models Spencer Ramsey, Amina Grant, Jeffrey Lee
This paper focuses on AI-generated fashion design, which falls within the realm of AI creativity and artistic applications. The key developments include: Read more
Stay Connected
- Visit my website: https://www.guidosalimbeni.it
- Follow me on Twitter and Instagram
- Subscribe to receive future newsletters
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with your friends.
