Disrupting the Disruptors

25-26 January 2024
Stockholm Kulturhuset

Sarah Cook, UmArts Guest Professor in Art and AI, will participate in the National Association of Artists seminar “Disrupting the Disruptors” on generative AI at Kulturhuset in Stockholm on Thursday 25 January. The day after the seminar, Friday 26 January, there will be a round table discussion with a small group of 15 people with different perspectives on the subject including: Sarah Cook, Guest Professor of Art and AI at Umeå University; Ben Zhao professor of computer science at the University of Chicago; Katarina Renman Claesson federal lawyer at the National Artists Association; Robert Brečević artist, filmmaker and programmer. The roundtable is led by Jussi Karlgren, Principal AI Scientist at Silo AI and Associate Professor in Language Technology at the University of Helsinki.

At the seminar “Disrupting the Disruptors” tools and methods are presented for how artists can avoid having their works included in training sets, among other things by adding a layer of disturbing data rasters to their images. During the follow-up conversation, we would like to expand the discussion to include the possibilities of using generative AI for art. Is AI a useful tool or a torpedo against the fundamentals of art? Would AI-generated image engines exist without the artists? And is there a contradiction between the protection and support of individual artistry and the stimulation of innovations?

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