Using AI to...Help Artists?
Art theft is nothing new, especially for those who create art on a daily basis. It’s commonly known that people will feed art to AI to create something brand new, which in the long run will hurt artists more than it will help them (and lets be honest, it’s already hurting artists as it is), but is it possible to use AI for something positive when it comes to art?
In 2024, Italy’s Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage began using an AI they call SWOADS, or ‘Stolen Works of Art Detection System’. The artificial intelligence looks into ‘Leonardo’, a database that is managed by the Carabinieri, as well as information online to help identify stolen pieces of art. Pictured above is a collection of recovered pieces of art worth $80 million by SWOADS in 2024.
Another example of AI being helpful when it comes to art is a German app called KIKU. This app uses AI to state the origin of whatever piece it is shown, as well as the time frame it was created in. After doing this, the AI uses a database to determine whether or not the art has been looted. The idea of having an app on your phone that is able to tell you whether or not a piece of art is stolen is incredible, and game changing when it comes to collectors and museums inquiring whether or not the pieces they are seeing are sourced correctly.
Additionally, the University of Oregon has a team of people that have come up with an artificial intelligence that is able to discern between real and fake Jackson Pollock paintings. The AI was fed fractal patterns of true Pollock paintings, and can “scale invariance of poured work” (Shelby) to determine whether or not the pieces are real.
All of these individual uses of AI are helping artwork from being stolen or replicated and sold for far more than its worth. That money would be coming out of innocent pockets – collectors, art students, museums, etc. I initially never thought there would be any way in which AI would be helpful in the art world, because as it stands now, AI is threatening to remove the need for human artists. Not that I personally think that AI could ever run off all human artists, because art made by humans has character and personality, things that any AI will lack, no matter how hard they try.
When used in this way, AI is more than helpful when it comes to recovering lost and stolen art, rather than producing stolen art. Using AI to help recover stolen art is not only helpful to law enforcement, but also supporting artists, collectors, and the arts cultural heritage. I find the conversation interesting around the use of AI in art, and it makes me hopeful that things like these databases and programs to detect stolen or forged art exist. The conversation of AI in general is what made me aware of these things, as I never knew that they existed. It’s also hopeful to realize that these things were put together up to three years ago, meaning that the initial use for AI in the art world may have been more positive than we all thought.
I think it is important to remind ourselves that not all AI is out to get us – some things are there for our ethical aid.
Sources
Jorgensen, Shelby. “How to Catch a Criminal in the 21st Century and Why AI Might Be Able to Help - Center for Art Law.” Center for Art Law - At the Intersection of Visual Arts and the Law, 3 Aug. 2025, itsartlaw.org/art-law/how-to-catch-a-criminal-in-the-21st-century-and-why-ai-might-be-able-to-help.
Wow, this is my first time hearing about SWOADS. I don't think we can just look at AI use negatively. Science and technology will continue to develop, and new tools will constantly come out. I think it's better to think about how to use those technologies in a more positive way than to reject them unconditionally. After all, if we deny and refuse to face them, we might end up being controlled by them. I also believe that discussions around stronger regulations on AI-generated art should be more active. As you said, it is a very good start for countries such as Italy and Germany to already use AI tools to regulate and protect art. In my country, Korea, there are active discussions on AI art regulation at the parliamentary level, so this topic came to me even more interesting. I sincerely hope that AI will be used quickly to strengthen copyright protection in the art field.
ReplyDeleteI found an article saying that Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT is working on an AI Basic Act. One key point is a rule that all AI-made content should have a watermark by default. I’m not sure if this will become a full law, but I think it’s a good start. (https://www.asiae.co.kr/article/2024082816590738454)
DeleteI absolutely agree that not all AI is out to get us. The fact that there are AI programs that are used to detect fake art is extremely impressive. I do wonder though, if it can detect themselves as AI art. At that point shouldn’t all AI work be cited as such in order to not cause misinformation or confusion? But I suppose that is the real issue right? Not only does AI completely negate the amount of work and time it takes to make something worthwhile, it’s camouflaged as something real or worse, it’s a hodgepodge rat king of real work. That’s where it becomes stolen and sometimes untraceable. The german app KIKU however is very intriguing since It works similar to google photos or any nature app on the app store where it can tell when the piece was made and where it came from. As we know, a lot of African Art is sitting in British Museums because of colonization. Would that be considered as stolen art in the app? Would the time frame and origin go back that far? In any case, thank you for sharing a positive spin on an ever-pressing argument of AI.
ReplyDeleteYour piece offers a really interesting take on how AI is being used in the art world. So often, the conversation around AI and art is centered on the negative, especially the way artists work is taken without permission to train AI models. But this piece shifts the focus to how AI can actually protect art, not just threaten it. You stated In some cases tools aren’t replacing artists or trying to replicate creativity they’re helping recover stolen work, spot fakes, and protect cultural heritage. Which is actually a huge win for us artists. I can appreciate your change in perspective from being doubtful about AI’s role in art to recognizing how it can be helpful when used in the right ways. It’s refreshing that not all tech is out to replace human creativity.
ReplyDeleteThis was very helpful information for me the was my first time hearing any of this. Often Ai is talked about as horrible and that it should not be used for any work of sort. It's quite impressive that there is artist that uses AI for their art. Your blog post Definitely changed my perspective for AI.
ReplyDeleteThis has been an interesting read. There is one major concern I have on AI use that is not related to art or inaccurate generative information that I wish is brought up more is the impact it has to the environment. It's possibly the most important aspect to consider in regards to AI use, but it's also the most overlooked in the discussions of it so I want to bring it up here as well. This isn't to say that you're in the wrong for listing out the AI that are being used properly in a way that is not exploitative (for example, Spiderverse movie's production crew making an AI program that tracks motions that adds the small hand-drawn details of characters from presets to make the task less arduous) just bringing up a factor that I think should also be considered on whether the AI is considered ethical or not. If an AI's database have beneficial uses but at the cost of taking more resources than it needs to to make it happen, then I can't be in good conscious to see it as ethical use. But if the AI doesn't have post any environmental harms and doesn't exploit on the works of others, then I am more certain to see the beneficial uses for it. This is to allows more room of skepticism and clarifications while also offering some transparency on the AI and making sure that the benefit is not skewed to one body of interest while it takes away from the other.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the AIs that listed here, I don't think I see any mentions of environmental harms it has and it seems one of them has been discussed extensively by UNESCO so I would say they seems fairly harmless for now. Sometimes you just have to double check to make sure all points are covered to make sure it clears things up.