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3.5 

The Digital Aesthete: Human Musings on the Intersection of Art and AI

By Alex Shvartsman & Ken Liu &
The Digital Aesthete: Human Musings on the Intersection of Art and AI by Alex Shvartsman & Ken Liu &  digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

Today's software can only imitate art, but what about tomorrow?


Will true artificial intelligences be able to appreciate or even create art? Explore dystopian societies, where AI generates most of the content and human artists must eke out an existence, and utopias, where artificial minds help unlock and enhance human creativity.

Delve into the minds of robot painters, AI poets, drone forgers, and electronic theater curators. These and other possible futures are imagined by award-winning and bestselling human authors from the USA, UK, China, Ukraine, Chile, Japan, Madagascar, Brazil, Czech Republic, and Sri Lanka.

 

"In this impressive collection, a star-studded lineup of 17 authors assembled by Shvartsman (Kakistocracy) raise angst-ridden questions about human-AI collaboration. ... This smart, kaleidoscopic view into the digital future will have readers longing to log off." - Publishers Weekly

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The Digital Aesthete: Human Musings on the Intersection of Art and AI Reviews

3.5
“Every collection of short stories has some good, some bad, and some mediocre stories. On the whole this collection is a 3.5, but each story deserves its own review. I'm going to rate some standouts individually. Silicon Hearts by Adrian Tchaikovsky- 4.75 What does art consumption mean to an AI? Which stories reach a digital heart? So good, so thought provoking. Forged by Jane Espenson- 4 The fake becomes the real deal, a chilling thought for the future of commercial art. A Beautiful War by Fang Zeyu- 4.25 This could be a feature film and it would be an Oscar winner for sure. It's about war and art and perception. It left me disgusted and sad. Good Stories by Ken Liu- 5 Does Liu write anything bad? He always hits and this is no exception. What makes a 'good story' in the age of AI generation of stories, and who is consuming these 'good stories'? The Laugh Machine by Auston Habershaw- 5 What happens to the people that AI replaces? The entertainment industry contained in algorithms endlessly regurgitating old work with no new creativity. Overall it's a good collection, I recommend it to anyone who likes to think about AI in fiction and the ways it can impact the world in the future.”
Thumbs Up“Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape amedia for the advance listeners copy. A range of good and okay stories about the future of AI. I felt like a lot of these didn't go as far with their concepts as I had hoped they would. Favorites were Silicon Hearts by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Good Stories by Ken Liu, Torso by H. Pueyo, and The Laugh Machine by Auston Habershaw.”
“An excellent anthology of short stories all to do with AI and the arts, from painting and sculpture, the theatre, writing, computer games and even a standup comedian. It’s not anglocentric, it includes various translated stories too. My favourites were ‘Silicon Hearts’ by Adrian Tchaikovsky about writing by bots for magazines edited by bots, and literary prizes judged by bots; ‘A Beautiful War’ by Fang Zeyu, where an AI assisted soldier sees art everywhere; ‘Good Stories’ by Ken Liu where stories are written by AI and consumed by the customer using dramatising apps etc; ‘The Laugh Machine’ by Auston Habershaw about an AI standup comedian; and ‘Hermetic Kingdom’ by Ray Naylor where uploaded people play the NPCs in games.”
“What a rollercoaster of a collection. The Digital Aesthete couldn't have come at a better time, with the ongoing conversation about ethics and legality of using AI in creative fields. The 17 short stories alternate between the realms of futuristic speculative Sci-Fi and the more believable, realistic current state of AI in the field of arts. ❗Warning - a couple of stories include graphical depictions of extreme violence and self-harm. The diversity of voices and styles is refreshing, and you've got something for lovers of every theme, from post-apocalyptic far futures to a creative take on the brutal conflict in present-day Ukraine. The authors also have vastly different depictions of AI. Some are benevolent, life-saving companions that manage to reach or exceed human capacity for empathy, beauty and art and find a way to coexist in a sort of comfortable symbiosis. Others are morally ambiguous, put to use by immoral humans or are outright malicious on their own. If you're looking for an ultimate conclusion about whether AI can, should or will create art, this isn't it. But the purpose of speculative fiction is leaving no stone unturned in exploring the "what ifs", and this book does this exceptionally well. ✨ Disclaimer ✨ I received a free copy of this book and this is my honest review.”

Marina and Sergey Dyachenko

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