The Calgary Public Library’s new AI art residency sparks controversy
Serena Kanji-Ramji, Staff Writer
The Calgary Public Library (CPL) is exploring new avenues with the artist residencies they offer. In an Instagram post on Feb. 27, the CPL announced they are accepting applications for their new “Creative in Residence–Artificial Intelligence Collaborative (AIC) Artist” position.
The library said in their post that the position is open to “artists in any discipline who use AI ethically as a collaborative partner in their creative process.” This residency would run over the course of 10 weeks, with the selected artist being compensated $50 an hour, being paid a maximum of $8,000, depending on the number of hours contributed.
The backlash to the announcement was instant, starting in the comment section of the post.
One user wrote, “There is no public ‘need’ to AI, in this political climate we need to be supporting the human artists who give this city its colour.”
Another individual responding to the CPL’s post commented, “There is no ethical AI art.”
In an interview with the Calgary Herald, Mayor Jeromy Farkas chimed in on the conversation, backing critics.
“I’m strongly in support of our local arts and culture scene, but it has to be Calgarians driving the bus,” he says. “I feel it robs local talent of the opportunity to be able to engage, and to be able to access contracts like these and to be able to bid.”
For many people, AI art is unethical for a number of reasons. One of the most discussed criticisms is that there is no such thing as ethical AI art because the software used to create images or paintings is often trained using other artists’ work as a reference point.
Generative AI, the type used in the sort of project the CPL is proposing, is trained through data lakes and question snippets.
Simplified, this means the software takes raw data and top search results and uses that as a reference to answer any prompt it’s given. Often, the data used is diversely sourced and includes social media feeds.
In 2024, Meta attracted criticism for using artists’ public Instagram’s to train their AI image generator.
Decisions like nonconsensually using artists’ work to train AI and establishing an AI art residency have caused frustrations in creative communities.
Known for evocative feminist art, Jelena MacDonald continues to be outspoken
about AI in the art scene. Photo courtesy of Jelena MacDonald
Multimedia artist and Alberta University of the Arts (AUArts) student Jelena MacDonald explains that the root of this frustration can be traced back to the few opportunities for artists based in Calgary and Alberta.
For MacDonald, the residency also reads as discouraging. She says that when she watches herself and her peers put in the work towards their art degrees, the replacement of their work becomes “very disheartening.”
When looking towards the future, MacDonald hopes that this residency isn’t setting a precedent for what art is going to be.
“I don’t want it to be where we’re heading for art,” she says. I don’t even want to say that it’s the creation of art, that it is art, because it’s not. I think a lot of people have taken for granted– [when you’re] practising something and putting your talents on the table. The public library is a place that focuses on education and making things accessible to people via knowledge, but I don’t think that art should fall into that.”
Despite the overwhelming amount of criticism, the CPL has not withdrawn the program. Over email with the Calgary Herald, CPL’s Community and Engagement Executive Director Mary Kapusta wrote, “As AI becomes more prevalent in our community, there is a public need to help Calgarians navigate the opportunities and challenges it presents”.
This statement was also echoed in the comment section of the original Instagram post.
As for the MRU perspective, Library Communications Coordinator Trent Warner said, “Our university library context is quite different from the public library’s, so I’m not sure we would have much relevant to say regarding the AI Artist residency”.
What this artist residency means for artists in Calgary remains to be seen. Applications for this position are to be closed on April 7.
