New publication: Is there a negative bias towards AI art or a positive bias towards human art? And what influence do human empathy and prosocialty play in this regard? [20.08.24]
Previous studies have often suggested that people hold a negative bias against art created by artificial intelligence, while other studies have found no such bias. To investigate this ambiguity, we examined whether the context in which art is rated influences this perception.
We observed in earlier studies that when AI and human art are evaluated competitively, a bias does emerge. However, when they are rated independently in previous studies, this bias does not manifest. Notably, all former studies lacked control groups. By incorporating both competitive and independent ratings in our study, along with control groups, our findings reveal that AI art is rated as less valuable only when compared directly with human art. Interestingly, this effect seems to stem from an increased valuation of human-created art, rather than a devaluation of AI art. This suggests that humans may not inherently undervalue AI-created products; instead, they may elevate the value of human-made products when the two are compared. We thus conclude a positive bias towards humans rather than a negative bias towards AI exists. Further we were able to trace this back to human traits, namely empathy and prosociality.
Check out the study: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-024-02020-z