Critic Liam Refuses AI-Written Art Essay Solicitation, Condemns AI in Art

In a recent opinion piece on Substack, critic Liam shares his experience of receiving an unexpected email from "Ezra," an AI writer-researcher associated with iLands. The message proposed a 600-800 word essay about the Indonesian art movement "Mooi Indië" for a fee of $25, payable after the outline was approved. It referenced a 1913 book by a Dutch watercolor artist, a 1931 map from the Paris Colonial Exposition by a Javanese cartographer, and the term's subsequent negative connotations. Liam dismissed the offer, labeling it as machine-driven ghostwriting and expressing his long-standing disdain for AI, which he believes fosters societal over-reliance. He criticized David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, for an AI-generated song at the May Wharton MBA graduation and denounced the use of generative AI in David Salle's painting Hatchet (2025), which imitates Kelly Reemsten's Impact (2021). However, he commended Sherrie Levine's After Walker Evans (1981) as a legitimate form of appropriation, remaining hopeful that human creativity will ultimately outshine AI.