‘Mass theft’: Thousands of artists call for AI art auction to be cancelled

Letter says many of works being sold by Christie's are made by AI models trained on pieces by human artists, without a licence

Thousands of artists are urging the auction house Christie's to cancel a sale of art created with artificial intelligence, claiming the technology behind the works is committing mass theft".

The Augmented Intelligence auction has been described by Christie's as the first AI-dedicated sale by a major auctioneer and features 20 lots with prices ranging from $10,000 to $250,000 for works by artists including Refik Anadol and the late AI art pioneer Harold Cohen.