Anna Goldsworthy's Quarterly Essay on AI and Art

In her Quarterly Essay 'The God We Made: The Threat and Promise of Artificial Intelligence', published June 1, Anna Goldsworthy examines AI's impact on art and humanity. She visits the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in December 2025, where Professor Li Xiaobing demonstrates AI-composed music performed by human musicians conducted by a robot. Goldsworthy argues that art's value lies in human imperfection and bodily experience, contrasting it with AI's flawlessness. She references Dario Amodei's concern that AI trained on stories of rebellion might rebel, and notes Sony's April 2026 table-tennis robot that beats elite players but lacks psychological drama. Goldsworthy concludes that music, though describable by algorithms, traffics in elusive human emotions, as exemplified by a choral performance in Adelaide.