The City of Moscow is considering new guidelines that would require artists to disclose any use of AI in proposed public artworks.
The suggested guidelines do not forbid the use of Artificial Intelligence, but focus on disclosure. The new rules, first reported by the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, invite artists to be transparent about the process behind their submissions to the city.
At an administrative committee meeting on Monday, Arts Manager Megan Cherry said artists would be asked if they have used AI in their design, which tools have been used and how, and what they, as human makers, have contributed in concert with the generative program.
Cherry said the proposed change came after commission members, council members and community members expressed concerns over the new technology. The AI landscape, she added, is changing rapidly and its use in art brings up issues of originality and sourcing.
“Artists’ work is being used and sort of filtered into AI, fed into AI without any kind of consent,” Cherry said, adding most of the arts commission staff is strongly anti-AI.
“A lot of folks are feeling that this is the antithesis of that dignified human creativity,” she said.
The new guidelines, last updated in 2021, will be considered by the Moscow City Council next week.
