Can AI Feel Art?

— Intro

Art is one of the most subjective subjects.

The single & isolated question we are exploring in this short article is how well existing AI models can interpret the subjective form of art in a way that emulates a human's subjective interpretation.

The answer to this question is a stepping stone to address a more critical question: if and how can AI "feel"?

— The Method

Twenty qualified art experts, authorities, and connoisseurs were tasked with independently evaluating 75 paintings. We will call this group "Curators".

Three well-known LLMs were fed the same 75 paintings. We will call this group "AI".

Instructions to both groups were identical, in short: based on a subset of 6 parameters, score each metric for each painting on a scale from 1-10.

Importantly, all 75 paintings were original, non-public, non-accessible paintings from independent, non-famous, and living artists.

— The Experiment & Results

The results show a moderate & somewhat positive-correlation level of agreement of how the curators felt about the 75 paintings.

In summary, some metrics show strong agreement between humans and AI (particularly technical skill and composition), and some metrics show non-agreement between humans and AI (particularly context/relevance).