Bias Against Artificial Intelligence in Visual Art: A Meta-Analysis

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of many visual art practices. Audiences, however, may have a bias against AI in visual art: knowing that AI was used to create art can broadly diminish aesthetic experience. Whether this bias occurs structurally and across the systems involved in an aesthetic experience remains an open question. To address this, a meta-analysis was conducted. The results showed significant negative but small pooled effect sizes for data categorised under the sensory-motor (6 studies, 16 effect sizes) and emotion-valuation (26 studies, 94 effect sizes) systems. For the knowledge-meaning system (27 studies, 49 effect sizes), a significant negative moderate pooled effect size was found. The bias’ severity was significantly moderated by age, suggesting a generational shift in how audiences think about using AI in art creation, and by art style, image source, and situatedness. Significant residual heterogeneity suggested that the bias against AI in visual art is unlikely to be a structural phenomenon. Furthering our understanding of bias against AI requires future research on invisible human and machine authorship and the potential of AI for creating rich aesthetic experiences. Herewith, this meta-analysis contributes novel insights into the bias against AI in visual art.