Definitions:
Art: A selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value judgments. Art serves a crucial psychological need for human consciousness, by concretizing abstract principles and providing inspiration for the observer to see reality through the artist's values. (By Ayn Rand, of course)
Objectivity: The ability of an observer to identify and acknowledge facts as they are in reality, unbiased by his emotions.
CHEV: Creation intended to Hold strictly Emotional Values.
The characteristics of a CHEV:
A CHEV is beautiful if the emotions it stirs are aesthetically pleasing. This quality is the basis on which an observer does, or does not, like the CHEV. This is a purely subjective evaluation based on the observer's aesthetic standards. Those standards may be implicit or explicit, innate or cultivated.
A CHEV is good to the extent that it does convey to the observer the intended emotional values it holds. The evaluation must be objective. For that, the observer must be aware of the creator's intentions. This information can be obtained either through direct observation of the CHEV, or through the study of the creator's style, mood, values, period of his life, historical period and any other criteria that provides the context in which the CHEV was brought into existence.
A CHEV is art if the creator succeeds in isolating what he considers to be the essential aspects of reality, and then in integrating them into the physical characteristics of the CHEV, thus presenting a unified, coherent vision of what life is and what humans value. It is an objective evaluation.
Notes:
Objectivity does not guarantee a correct evaluation of whether the CHEV is art or good. The evaluation process must be based on all the necessary information required, and objectively acquired, for a correct result.
A CHEV can satisfy any of the three criteria, in any combination. Therefore it can be good and beautiful but not art. Or an ugly artistic creation. Or bad but beautiful. And so on.
The attributes of a CHEV should not be confused with the attributes of its subject. A creator can beautifully paint an ugly Medusa. Or badly sculpt a good Saint.
At every step of the process of creation, the creator is also an observer. He must constantly evaluate the prospect that his CHEV will, in the end, be good. This is easier for him than for any observer, since he already knows himself as the creator. It is the creator's choice to decide whether he intends his CHEV to be art or beautiful. And since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, i.e subjective, beautiful to whom?
The requirement for objectivity in evaluating the characteristics of good and art means that these qualities do not depend on any observer's aesthetic tastes. These two qualities are intrinsic in the CHEV itself and they can be present to a higher or lesser degree. A CHEV considered by the vast majority of observers as beautiful is not necessarily a piece of art. Or good. Or vice-versa.
A CHEV, if traded, has commercial value, which is determined based on offer and demand, just like any other commercial product or service.
AI CHEV-s:
All of the above is not for nothing. It is the background needed to determine the status of CHEV-s created by Artificial Intelligence. The conclusions, at this point, should be obvious.
Just like any CHEV created by humans, an AI CHEV can be seen as beautiful and can even be good.
However, Nothing created by AI can be Art, since no AI is (yet) capable of metaphysical value judgments. An AI has no values since it does not have a life to sustain. Furthermore, the AI does not bother itself with metaphysical questions about its own place in the Universe, the nature of reality and the purpose of life.
A creator exclusively using AI to create something is not an artist.
A creator using AI as a tool in the process of creation is an artist only to the extent that the AI does not take decisions regarding the rendering of the values the CHEV is intended to hold. For instance, if the creator wants the CHEV to hold the value "Strength" and so he instructs AI "Paint a muscular man", that is not art. For it to be art it is the human creator who must decide which muscles should be depicted, how prominent they should be, how they reflect the light and how they cast shadows. But if the creator wants to render the value "Serenity" and so he tells AI "Fill the sky visible between the leaves of the tree with bright red", that is a legitimate use of AI and does not diminish the CHEV's quality of being art.
