Francesco D'Isa's new book explores AI and art

Philosopher and cartoonist Francesco D'Isa has published "La rivoluzione algoritmica delle immagini. Arte e intelligenza artificiale" (Luca Sossella Editore, 2024), a collection of essays and conversations on generative AI and its artistic applications. The book, which follows his 2023 graphic novel "Sunyata" (Eris Edizioni) co-created with AI, offers a critical introduction to text-to-image systems like Midjourney. D'Isa argues that the mediocrity of AI-generated images reflects the mediocrity of commercial art on which these systems are trained, and warns that automating such production could harm the labor market. He criticizes the art world's focus on copyright enforcement, which he believes will entrench dominant players like Getty Images, which claims over 477 million visual assets. D'Isa advocates for open, modifiable datasets to counter Western and capitalist biases in AI. The book does not address the "ghost work" of data labeling, often done by marginalized workers in the Global South, a notable omission. The volume is part of a broader discourse on AI, authorship, and creativity.