At SXSW, a Culture Clash: Can Gen AI and Art Get Along?

South by Southwest is known for showcasing creativity: in film, music, comedy and other forms of art. But with this year's conference focusing heavily on generative AI, there was no better place to see the collision of human creativity and machine creation up close. What did I find? Technologists who see machine learning making it easier for people to bring ideas to reality. Artists who see AI as an existential threat to their craft's already precarious financial stability -- and a shortcut through vital steps in the creative process. There's more, though: Artists who see AI as another tool in the palette, a way of experimenting with new forms of art that we haven't seen before. "The best-case scenario is that we enter a time when people are collaborating and creating in ways that we couldn't imagine before," said Holly Herndon, a musician and artist who has pioneered the use of machine learning to create new art forms. That's one possible future, but there's still much more to be ... Read full article.