artsXchange: Authenticity in the Age of AI

The dawn of Artificial Intelligence poses a historically profound, alarming, and unprecedented problem for writers, musicians, and artists. AI’s generative powers, often controlled anonymously, match human creative ventures and promise to surpass them. What then is “authenticity” as an outcome of human creative processes? How can we establish criteria to help us decide whether the art forms we are exposed to are “authentic” and worthy of our respect? The main focus of this presentation will be on literary works, with a few visual artworks on display at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum providing opportunities to consider analogies between literary and visual arts. In preparing a definitive book about many different versions of the “Princess Winona” legends, Monica DeGrazia has confronted questions about the legend’s credibility in direct and varying ways.