Internet meme · Classic

AI art

AI art refers to visual content generated or assisted by artificial intelligence, commonly produced by modern generative AI trained on preexisting content.

First seen
Last seen
Uses cited
4
Revision
2

Where it started

Artificial intelligence visual art, or AI art, is artistic content generated or assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) programs. The classification of AI output as "art" remains controversial, and AI-created works have been variously rejected or recognized by preexisting artistic institutions. The application of robotics or primitive algorithms to art has been discussed or practiced since antiquity; however, the term primarily refers to visual works created by modern generative AI trained on preexisting content. During the AI boom of the 2020s, text-to-image models such as Midjourney, DALL-E and Stable Diffusion became widely available to the public, allowing users to quickly generate imagery with little effort. The history of artificial intelligence has raised many questions on the nature of art in human–AI collaboration, while commentary about AI art in the 2020s has often focused on issues related to copyright, deception, defamation, and its impact on more traditional artists, including technological unemployment. AI art frequently constitutes AI slop, mass-produced content for online engagement at the expense of quality. In August 2023, a United States district court ruled that AI art is ineligible for copyright due to failure to meet human authorship. In March 2026, it declined to hear a case over whether AI-generated art can be subject to copyright.

The use timeline

  1. Since 2022, Internet users have used generative AI software including DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, Midjourney and Flux to construct images from text prompts. The resulting images, often shared across social media, are often humorous and can range from uncanny to near-perfect results, sometimes as part of a meme phenomenon, becoming memes or being based on other meme images. Additionally, some AI-generated videos like "Harry Spotter The boy who lifted" have become Internet memes.

  2. Wikidata Q65066631: artificial intelligence visual art — genre of art.

Examples

Public domain. Encik Tekateki.

How was this page documented?

The entry summarizes cited origins, dated appearances, and community supplied examples. To request a correction or removal, use the report form below.