Does the art market need AI?

{"text":[[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":6.05,"text":"Could an art dealer use artificial intelligence to duplicate themselves and multiply their business, in the mould of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg? Could a curator build a team of nine virtual agents to mount an exhibition? These were among the ideas floated recently in The Academy’s “AI in the Art Market” course, an online event organised by Art Market Minds."}],[{"start":28.45,"text":"For an industry behind the curve in terms of technology, such possibilities remain far-fetched. Many artists, though, are already on board. These include Rachel Maclean, who represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale in 2017, and has since developed AI models trained on her image and artistic style. Having another version of herself “has been a creative collaboration, like working with another artist”, says her representing gallerist, Josh Lilley, who will be showing her eerie fantasy film “They’ve Got Your Eyes” in a solo show in London from June 4."}],[{"start":61.599999999999994,"text":"While unresolved legal and ethical issues abound, notably around issues of copyright, Maclean is among many open to the new frontier and its inherent tensions. “As an artist working today, you have to confront generative AI, [even] by rejecting it,” she says. One certainly not rejecting it is Turkish American artist Refik Anadol, who is creating the world’s first dedicated museum, Dataland, which opens in Los Angeles next month."}],[{"start":89,"text":"Most gallery owners remain wary, even if platforms such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude have become a daily feature of their businesses."}],[{"start":98.95,"text":"“The art market has a reputation for being very late to adopt advanced technologies, but hasn’t been able to resist this silent takeover,” says Callum Hale-Thomson, founder of the start-up collector intelligence platform First Thursday. His company recently surveyed 103 galleries and found that 84 per cent of staff use AI tools for their day-to-day work."}],[{"start":122,"text":"AI is not being used strategically, though, despite the systems now being increasingly agentic. The most common use in galleries is for administrative and operational support, according to a separate survey of more than 300 businesses by Artsy. This found that 57 per cent of respondents used AI for drafting or editing emails and other communications, while research and transcription were also in the mix."}],[{"start":146.3,"text":"Proponents say that AI could help the industry more meaningfully at a time of increased volatility. “The art market needs to modernise its operational backbone to support a global, increasingly complex business. The real shift comes when AI moves beyond isolated tasks and into co-ordinated support, [including] developing agents that operate across multiple systems,” says Jennifer Candelario, senior director of IT at Pace, one of a handful of galleries investing in such systems."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":175.9,"text":"Having to confront AI could force some galleries to tackle strategic questions that they badly need to face. Journalist Tim Schneider told The Academy course that “the richest and most helpful tools in this space are the ones that can help galleries or smaller businesses to go from ‘I’m just in this because I love the art’ to skilling up and formalising their operations, without becoming completely soulless in the process.”"}],[{"start":204.85,"text":"Auction houses, the largest-scale businesses in the art market, are taking AI seriously, with acquisitions including Thread Genius, an image recognition and recommendation company bought by Sotheby’s in 2018. Last year, Christie’s Ventures invested in Artsignal, a valuation tool."}],[{"start":222.54999999999998,"text":"Some solutions are emerging for smaller businesses too. First Thursday streamlines enquiries and analyses client profiles and buying patterns, and can then “nudge” gallery professionals to follow up on opportunities. “The art market probably has one of the lowest conversion rates from interest to actual purchase,” Hale-Thomson says of the thinking behind his business. Meanwhile, existing market data firms, such as the recently merged Artsy and Artnet, say they plan to harness new technologies to support the industry."}],[{"start":252.35,"text":"Some observers believe that, in a field of limited data, having more information available at speed could help formalise the murky world of pricing, though not everyone is convinced. “Pricing that is kept private today won’t become public because of AI,” Hale-Thomson says. Authentication is another area that is being tested, but here too the jury is out."}],[{"start":273.55,"text":"Much of the resistance to AI within the art market is for similar reasons to in other fields. Issues of “slop” (low quality and often mass-distributed content) has infiltrated galleries and museums and is beginning to be called out, such as via the Instagram handle @pressrelease.sus, which names and shames."}],[{"start":292.6,"text":"The devotedly in-person art world is also particularly resistant to machines that replace acts of looking and making, prompting a reaction against the “perfection” of AI, noted Alan Lau, vice chair of M+ museum in Hong Kong and chief business officer at Animoca Brands, during the Academy course. "}],[{"start":311.75,"text":"Also of concern is that, while gallery staff might already be using AI software daily, there is limited institutional oversight. First Thursday finds that 83 per cent of its respondents used personal accounts for their AI activity, while only 8 per cent of their galleries have a related policy. With information such as the names of wealthy clients, what they bought and for how much, “there is potentially a big data security issue,” says Aimée Scala, partner at the law firm Mazzola Lindstrom LLP."}],[{"start":343.15,"text":"Candelario confirms that Pace has a global AI policy that broadly “sets clear guardrails and provides teams with tools to enhance their experience.”"}],[{"start":353.75,"text":"The loss of junior jobs seems inevitable, particularly in an industry struggling with high costs. Ty Ahmad-Taylor, board trustee for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and a senior executive in the tech industry, told The Academy that the art world’s “knowledge workers” are less likely to be subsumed by AI than employees in fields such as HR, administration, law and accountancy (though these are also roles in the bigger art businesses.)"}],[{"start":379.4,"text":"Summing up, Marc Spiegler, co-founder of The Academy and former global director of Art Basel, described the status quo as “like trying to chart entirely new territory during an earthquake, while drunk and moving rapidly over the landscape in a helicopter being tossed around by a storm”. Nevertheless, he says, for art businesses, the choice is between “being an agent of change in your business or victim of AI’s circumstance.”"}],[{"start":409.2,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1778039482_6681.mp3"}