AI and the future of Beauty
a reappreciation of the imperfect
“There is no beauty that is perfect, because only in imperfection can grace live. A sense of surprise, mistake, unexpectedness and imperfection is fertile ground for growth, meaning and connection. Especially in the age of AI, imperfection is what will we continue to look for. It is, what I predict, we will call beautiful.”
I’m starting a PhD in AI ethics later this year in Rome. So I’m here, with my wife and our dog Moss, to do some preliminary work. Arriving in Italy, the exported image of Tuscany’s green hills and the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean sea appear only a slice of reality. Reality hits with its imperfection, its plastic waste spread alongside cracked tarmac roads, its late and graffitied trains, its impoverished outskirts. Tourism is bulky here. Too bulky to keep up with for Rome. And still, this is the city of beauty. This is where grace hides in every street corner, every cappuccino I order, every reflection of the sun in water. We love Italy because its history recites: beauty is here, and beauty may be all you need.
On our drive down South we came through three different Germanic cultures, each with its sophisticated rules, clean roads, and, I must say, outstanding public restroom services. All perfect but not beautiful. Slick but not gracious. Just like AI generated images. They are perfect, but are they beautiful?
With AI being perfectly fit for perfecting everything. Let’s have a little chat about the desirability of perfection, and its relation to beauty. About the impact of AI on creativity. We will then take a short peak into the future of beautification through art and design in various cultures.
Here we go.
First of all, what is beauty?
Three reflections.
1. Beauty as process
Beauty is, as we learn from Michelangelo, not merely about achieving perfection in form, but also about having the diligence to unveil the grace that lies beneath the surface. It is just as much about the process of discovery, as the end result. Rome is not superficially beautiful, it is not perfect. Here, beauty manifests in the Italian rhythm of ‘piano, piano’, it requires you to pauze a little, to take a breather and look beyond immediate imperfections. Its beauty then manifests in the spontaneous expressions of daily life, its people, in nature pushing through the cracks of the urban landscape, of course in pasta, and pizza, and in the layers of history that reverberate through the city’s architecture. Beauty as process means we look for the deeper essence of what’s happening in the present moment.
2. Beauty as imperfection
In futurists’ realms, there has been a shift from researching and designing Utopia, to researching and designing Protopia. Utopia, being a perfect vision of the future, Protopia being a prototypable future that is both rooted in realism ánd an imagination of what’s possible. Protopia is an imperfect vision of the future, but still, a beautiful one. It is the best possible next step. When we talk about beautiful futures, we often dream of the impossible, perfect and romantic situations we wish to create. They never become real. And when reality hits, this can leave us without hope. Beauty as imperfection means we aim for Protopia as our ultimate master piece, our most beautiful imperfect world to strive for.
3. Beauty as friction
There is a friction between cultural and natural beauty. Cultural beauty, manifested through art, architecture, bodily aesthetics, and language, reflects a collective desire to express our identity, values, and historical lineage. It's a beauty that requires a context and sensibility of the zeitgeist to be fully appreciated. Beauty in nature doesn’t need to be explained. It is universal, eliciting a raw, immediate emotional response. But why is cultural beauty so often not ‘natural’? Why have we learned to appreciate the artificial and man-made as more beautiful? Why have we even gone so far as to prefer a plastic sculpture in a museum over a tree? It’s these questions that I often ponder. And specifically poignant when talking about the types of beauty that AI should pursue. The truth is, we will never agree about what is beautiful. Therefore, beauty is also friction.
What beauty ideals should AI pursue?
The challenge of integrating beauty into AI systems’ goals, poses unique philosophical and technical questions. How do we instruct AI systems about the subjective nature of beauty? Can we account for as many definitions of beauty as we can? This, in itself, is a pursuit of a kind of Protopia – where technology enhances our capacity to appreciate and create beauty in all its diversity, imperfections and forms. With AI being a mirror of our value compass, the future of art will reflect various cultural definitions of beauty. Let’s visit some cultures I’m very familiar with because I’ve lived there or spent a lot of time there. I’m skipping most of the world for this imperfect look into the future of beauty, maybe we will visit other continents another time.
AI and the future of beauty around the globe
🇮🇹 Here in Italy, the widespread pursuit of classical beauty could manifest in the development of AI systems that emulate a classical rhetoric. Here, there may be a focus on utilizing AI for preserving and analyzing historical artifacts, translating ancient languages, and simulating historical events for educational or entertainment purposes. There might also be a focus on using AI in artistic and craftsmanship endeavors such as generating classical music compositions, preserving food traditions or evoking ancient architecture with the help of technology, like TECLA combining tech with clay. We may see craftsmanship go through the roof in the age of AI. Using AI as a craftsman partner, letting the AI do the dirty or digital work to have more space and time to perfect an analogue craft whilst working with your hands.
🇳🇱 🇩🇪🇨🇭 In a Germanic cultural context we love to blend aesthetic sensibilities with utility, efficiency, and a strong message about conservation and sustainability. AI, now and in the future, may be more inclined towards creating pragmatic and functional beauty that emphasizes regeneration and environmental consciousness. This could involve using AI to design photosynthetic buildings or material-efficient renewable energy solutions. As a speculative designer working in this industry, I now learn how Dutch I am… I am so guilty of being an environmental artist and part of this significant trend.
🇺🇸 In the US, AI applications might be more geared toward pushing the boundaries of what is considered "art", “design” or “architecture” and challenging traditional notions of beauty. We see a lot of collaborative projects between artists and AI programs, like what Sougwen Chung has been doing for many years. Also the US being the US, it will show us the potential for diversity in art, and will use AI to push boundaries and experiment with an infinite variation of styles, techniques, and mediums - each telling a different story, expressing a different identity. Additionally, the US may experiment with increasingly complex art. AI can assist in manipulating and analyzing vast amounts of data, allowing us to create intricate and multi-layered pieces. Beauty could express as data visualization or exploring complex concepts, offering a new perspective on societal issues and sparking important conversations around individual and collective identity.
🌱🐳 And to end with a major cultural influence on all of us: other species, or, what we call ‘nature’. In a future post I’m going to dive deeper into this - but with AI enabling interspecies communication, we may be able to see the beauty of the world through the eyes of a mantis shrimp, or hear a classical repertoire of whale song through the ears of a newborn calf. This may, in fact dissolve some of the previously mentioned boundaries between cultural and natural definitions of beauty, simply because we learn to better empathize with nature.
Ethical dilemma’s, the EU AI Act, and the future of beauty
Among the most pressing ethical concerns around the future of beauty are issues of authorship and Intellectual Property. As AI algorithms are trained on extensive datasets of existing artworks, the lines between inspiration and imitation become blurred, and this has already led to quite the uproar. With the EU AI Act facing formal adoption in April this year and final endorsement by the European Council, creators of beauty as well as institutions need to study the text and start making necessary preparations. By navigating these ethical complexities with grace, we can welcome a future where AI offers us new dimensions of beauty without dropping too much of a shadow.
May it be a beautiful mess
In the end, there are no real answers to the question: what is beauty in the age of AI, because beauty, as we’ve seen, is entirely in the eye of the beholder. I’m here, in Italy, living my imperfect life, and you are there, making the best of yours. We can never be 100% ethical, but to strive for beauty, harmony and synergy within the sometimes opposing forces we face, may be a morally worthwhile pursuit. In the dance between AI and beauty, this (thank god) could then only lead to a beautiful mess. There is no beauty that is perfect, because only in imperfection can grace live. That sense of surprise, mistake, unexpectedness and imperfection is fertile ground for growth, meaning and connection. Especially in the age of AI, imperfection is what will we continue to look for. It is, what I predict, what we will call beautiful.
Thank you for reading.
Util next time, x Lisanne
Further reading:
It’s a tough cookie, but if you are to read it read it here: Interactive Table of Contents to make the EU AI Act readable and digestible
Follow Monika Bielskyte who contributed significantly to popularizing the term Protopia (originally invented by Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired)
On other news, from now on The Speaker's Academy represents me for keynote speaking engagements and workshops at conferences and corporate events.
As a speaker I inspire audiences to think about AI differently. Beyond hope, I bring a trajectory forward, showing the future consequences of ethical trade-offs we make today. I’m excited about sharing this message with many more audiences in the coming months and years, knowing that there’s still a lot of fear around AI, and a lot of untapped potential.
100% There is no perfect harmony. It takes tension — and some variance or even conflict to resolve — for harmony to have harmonized anything at all.