Beeple on AI Art: ‘Cultural Theft? No, I Think That’s Ridiculous’

• Digital artist Beeple has rejected the notion that artificial intelligence art should be considered theft.
• Both humans and AI mostly create by rearranging existing ideas, according to Beeple.
• Rather than diminishing artistic value, Beeple believes AI is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

Renowned digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple, has passionately defended the role of AI in the art world, rejecting claims that it undermines human creativity.

Beeple, whose NFT artwork Everydays: The First 5000 Days sold for $69 million, believes that AI is advancing creativity, not hindering it.

Beeple on AI

In a recent interview on the CryptoNews podcast, Beeple was asked whether he considers AI-generated art a form of “cultural theft.”

The acclaimed artist dismissed the comments as “ridiculous,” arguing that such criticism misrepresents both the capabilities of AI and the essence of human creativity.

“The idea that people have that [AI] is not making anything new is not true,” Beeple explained. “I think you can definitely make new things with AI.”

Beeple believes AI functions pretty closely to how most humans do, and anyone who doesn’t believe the same is somewhat naive.

“People who sort of are like ‘it’s just remixing ideas that have already happened,’ it’s like, well, what the f*** do you think humans are doing?”

“The percentage of new truly novel ideas that you encounter on a daily basis is shockingly low,” he said.

Humans and AI

Beeple continued to challenge the notion that AI-generated content lacks originality. He emphasized that the creative process, whether by humans or machines, is often not based on inventing from scratch.

“Most of what you see is bits and pieces rearranged into new combinations,” he said.

“That’s why AI is so good at this, creativity is actually much more formulaic than people think,” Beeple added.

He pointed to AI’s ability to write movie scripts instantly as an example, claiming: “Most movies aren’t that original, to be quite honest.”

Even the most admired creatives, Beeple argued, are not purely original.

“Maybe they have one or two unique ideas, but even the best visionaries borrow and remix ideas from those who came before them,” he said.

Rather than marking the “death of creativity,” Beeple believes AI raises the creative bar.

He described how AI-generated art continues to surprise him: “I see things now that, if I had seen them five years ago, I would have thought, Holy crap, that’s amazing.”

Beeple’s NFT Journey

In 2021, Beeple made headlines by selling an NFT collage of his first 5,000 daily artworks for $69.3 million. Since then, the NFT market has dramatically plummeted, dropping over 90% from its peak.

In an October interview , Beeple admitted that the market was a bubble at the time of the sale.

“I was making digital art for 20 years before that, and I saw people buying s***,” he said. “It’s like, there is no f****** way that is going to hold value, that is absolute crap.”

Still, Beeple acknowledges there’s ongoing enthusiasm for digital art and NFTs.

He believes most people who exited the NFT space were never truly interested in the art itself.

“There was this very brief window where people were like, ‘Yes, this is the future,’” he said. “And then it went right back to like, Oh, you f***** piece of s***, don’t put that evil on me.”