Friend, foe or frenemy: Foreseeable impacts of AI on arts, culture and creativity 

Key points 

• Australians are already using AI throughout arts, culture and creativity
• Applications of AI already present real risks and opportunities for arts, culture and creativity
• Coordinated governance can help unlock opportunities and mitigate risks
• People have an important role in developing, applying and evaluating AI

Part 1: Applications of AI 

People in Australia and organisations are applying AI throughout arts, culture and creativity, including in:

• creation of arts and culture
• discovery of content via search engines
• preservation of language and heritage
• automated content recommendation and moderation on digital platforms
• automated speech recognition, captioning and transcription
• machine translation of text and speech
• classification ratings in video and games

Part 2: Impacts of AI 

The capabilities and applications of AI systems are still evolving. As a result, at least some impacts are not evident now. Even where there are impacts, risks and opportunities continue to emerge. In Part 2, we explore some of the likely impacts of existing applications of AI on:

• incentives to create
• connections people have with arts and culture
• freedom of expression
• cultural and social inclusion

Conclusions and next steps 

While the impacts of AI are likely to evolve over time, some are tangible now. We can see impacts on incentives to create and on freedom of expression. We can recognise changes to how people connect with arts, culture and creativity, and the uneven impacts for different Australians.

ANA welcomes efforts from all governments in Australia to design, implement and support appropriate AI governance. Coordinated governance can help to safeguard the interests of Australians in arts, culture and creativity, and secure their participation in society and culture.