Articulating arts-led AI: artists and technological development in cultural policy

As both artificial intelligence (AI) and creativity are being foregrounded in UK policy agendas, this paper identifies a striking underrepresentation of artists and artistic practice in cultural policy discussing creative innovation. This is despite increasing academic literature, arts-led research, and case studies evidencing a close and dialogic relationship between art and AI. To illustrate this, we first call attention to the impact artistic practice has on AI, against the more common discourse of AI’s impact on the arts. We then review UK policy addressing the intersection of the cultural sector, creative industries, and digital sector. Taking this context into account, we argue that artists and artistic practice are currently underrepresented in cultural policy advocating for investment in creative innovation. We suggest this under-acknowledgement is embedded as foundationally as the policy language used to articulate the intersection of arts and technologies, foregrounded by the semantic separation of “Visual arts” and “Artistic creation” from the “Digital Sector” in UK Standard Industrial Classifications. This separation reveals a misalignment of policy and practice that risks underrepresenting the important contribution artists make to the development of AI, and discourse around its role in society. Addressing this misalignment requires a review of policy language used to articulate the intersection of the cultural sector, creative industries, and digital sector in order to more closely align artistic practice with the development of AI. This is an important first step in establishing cultural policy that recognises, prioritises, and invests in artists as the agents of creative innovation that literature and practice evidence them to be.