The advent of generative artificial intelligence platforms is revolutionizing the visual arts, introducing new players into the field, particularly creators with visual literacy but not necessarily manual skills. For several decades, contemporary art has focused on the conceptual act, on the idea rather than material execution. Beginning with the provocations of Marcel Duchamp, conceptual art has since the 1960s become a fundamental director of contemporary art, of which it constitutes perhaps one of the most defining aspects. Contemporary artists have often lost execution skills , and in many cases merely conceive works and then have them executed by other professionals. In a way, the loss of the relationship between the creative act and the personal execution of the work is already theoretically outdated.
Critical reflection on the impact of AI on creativity, authorship and the value of work itself remains open. The presence of generative AI as a tool for individual productivity is an element of dramatic discontinuity, challenging the role of humans themselves in society and in cultural and creative processes. Art cannot avoid devoting its extraordinary conceptual capabilities to this epochal phenomenon, which are able to denude reality and reveal its hidden aspects. In order to regain the artist and author their rightful leading role, a profound path of study and research is required.
Italiano