Ever since Marcel Duchamp redefined art over 100 years ago, human creativity has been adapting to new technology and the AI era is no different, says Lewis Liu

I almost became a professional artist instead of an AI entrepreneur; a painter to be exact. As an undergraduate art student, double majoring in Fine Arts and Physics and trying to combine the two disciplines, I struggled tremendously with Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp, the famous French artist who submitted a urinal as ‘art’ titled ‘Fountain’ in 1917, changed art forever. It signalled to the art world that art is merely a social construct, and that pre-fabricated machine objects, such as a urinal, can be construed as art just as much as a Rembrandt painting.

I remember getting into massive arguments about this with my various professors. See, I was classically trained in oil painting as a kid, and I was keenly proud of my ability to execute with brush on canvas. And while I understood the theoretical implications of modern art, it deeply bothered me for most of my undergraduate life, and much of my art involved trying to understand this: how is this art if there is no ‘skill’ involved? I ultimately let go of the notion that art must be brilliant ‘brush........

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