The computer, A choreographer? Aesthetic responses to randomly-generated dance choreography by a computer

Is artificial intelligence (AI) changing our culture or creating its own? With advancements in AI and machine learning, artistic creativity is moving to a brave new world of possibility and complexity, while at the same time posing challenging questions, such as what defines something as art, what is the role of human creativity in an automated world, and do we evaluate artificial art in the same way as art made by humans? Across two pre-registered and statistically powered experiments we shed light on the nature of aesthetic responses toward computer-generated art by investi-gating observer prejudices against computer-generated dance choreography, and the impact of expertise and pre-conceived beliefs about the origin of artistic creation. Our results provide substantive evidence that an explicit bias exists among dance experts against computer-generated chore-ography. The mere belief about a dance work's origin biases aesthetic responses toward artworks among both dance experts and dance naive participants. The implications of the current study serve to inform several disciplines across the arts and sciences including but not limited to empirical aesthetics, artificial intelligence, engineering, robotics, and social cognition and neuroscience. Along with physical form and content of artificial agents and art productions, the viewers' knowledge and attitudes toward artistic AI and artificial agents will need to be taken into consideration for effective human-computer/human-AI interactions.

Automated summary

As AI and machine learning advance, art is entering a new world of possibilities and complexities. However, it raises challenging questions about the definition of art, the role of human creativity in an automated world, and the evaluation of artificial art. Through experiments, it has been found that there is bias against computer-generated dance choreography among dance experts and that beliefs about the origin of a dance work bias aesthetic responses. This study has implications for various disciplines including empirical aesthetics, AI, engineering, robotics, and social cognition and neuroscience.