What is Art?
By Nefellie F.
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2025 has been nothing short of a year of drastic, unique, and unimaginable change. But, while many of these changes took charge in the form of viral trends or fads, one thing in particular has skyrocketed in relevance and popularity to the point where thinking about 2025 and the foreseeable future brings it to mind.
This change, of course, would be Artificial Intelligence.
I can confidently state that as a student and teenager, AI is seen pretty much everywhere I look, and while AI has been around for years on end, it has reached a previously unseen level of relevance. Today, even the ten minute drive I take to work sends me zooming by countless establishments with completely AI generated advertisements, slogans so cringe-worthy that only ChatGPT could be responsible, and window pictures of AI generated customers with eerie, fictitious smiles. And every time I drive by, I can’t help but wonder something that has been on the minds of millions: at what point can “art” solely created by Artificial Intelligence still be considered art?
The definition of art from Britannica is as follows: a visual object or experience consciously created through an expression of human skill or imagination.
At first glance, this definition seems to settle the debate entirely. AI cannot create real art, as quite literally defined by one of the most generally trusted sources of the English language, because it lacks humanity. It relies on creativity, imagination, and emotion, things that no algorithm, no matter how advanced, can genuinely feel. In that sense, it seems simple to conclude that AI cannot create real art. But, in reality, it’s a multifaceted debate.
No, AI cannot technically create art in and of itself, if we accept the definition of art. However, as much as this definition appears to close the case, the reality of art in 2025 is far less black and white. While Artificial Intelligence may lack humanity, the humans who use it and control it do not. Everything done by AI is sparked by a human thought, prompt, or desire, and AI is often just a human tool used to get to a final destination quicker or more easily. It is often argued that Artificial Intelligence, when used behind a cohesive, human thought, is just a tool capable of extending creativity rather than replacing it. Just as the invention of the camera didn’t destroy painting but instead redefined artistic expression, the rise of AI may be forcing us to reconsider what it truly means to create art, and how much physical work needs to go into it.
To put it simply, everybody has a varying opinion when it comes to what AI can actually create, and if it can actually create, but it is critical to keep in mind one thing in particular. The Britannica dictionary essentially states that human imagination must be somewhere within a work of art, but this must be questioned.
Why is human imagination necessary in art? Because art is meant to be seen by other humans. Art needs to convey a personal idea and sense of humanity to be real, because its purpose from the beginning of time was to display raw thoughts and feelings. Take cave art, for example. Humans would draw with natural materials on walls of caves for record-keeping, but also to show others around them what they were thinking before language was developed. Pictures would paint a story, and individuals seeing those pictures would understand the meaning behind it. More importantly, the way the pictures were drawn would show the emotions of the artist. Smooth, long strokes on cave walls of tribal leaders and important animals have been interpreted as being drawn with reverence, while short, choppy lines which form a picture of an animal would imply that the artist was scared of that animal.
Art differs from day to day, and needs to show different emotions in order to evoke the same ones in other humans. It’s a messy combination of experience, hope, anger, love, and imperfection, and while AI can try to recreate these feelings, it isn't actually feeling them while manufacturing the art. So perhaps the real danger of AI isn’t that it will replace human art, but that it will make us forget why art matters in the first place.
Art is messy. Art fosters connection. Art is creative. Art is ugly. Art is beautiful. And most importantly, art is alive, because we are art. AI can paint, write, and compose, but it cannot care in a human manner. And as long as caring remains the heart of creation, true art will always belong to us.
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