Art has always been a powerful tool in times of war. Imagery and art are the most effective ways to spread a message to the largest audience; it is the quickest form of communication and AI is exploiting this. Moving from the propaganda posters of WWI with Lord Kitchener’s Big Brother-like eyes luring in young British soldiers to fight, now it is AI that controls and generates the narratives that art was once used for.
Art is often used to reflect status: it therefore holds importance. This importance grants art the purpose of creating narrative and narrative is especially important in times of war, and specifically, who controls it.
During the Cold War, the US wanted to promote values of freedom and individualism, in defence of liberal democracy, and they used art to do this. Through funding artists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, showcasing their abstract expressionist styles, America portrayed themselves as culturally progressive and free, in contrast to the totalitarian Soviet Union who threatened global freedom. America used art to embody their narrative.
However, as AI is progressing, art’s role in war propaganda is being replaced.
With the current war overtaking the Middle East, AI is taking on the role of propaganda, replacing art. Much of the information that is spread about this war is done via social media, and AI is shaping the information that is spread, completely altering the portrayal of the war. Videos that once would have taken a team of professionals to forge, are now being created by AI in minutes, showing faux bombings and missile attacks.
This is a vicious form of propaganda, used to falsely portray an ‘enemies’ cruelty, directing people’s attention to conflict that doesn’t exist. AI is creating another modernised avenue in which imagery is used to generate narratives and cultivate fear in times of war.
It is no longer art that is used for recruitment or to boost morale, it is now AI that is used to harbour fear and exacerbate divisions.
Photo by Geoff Thatcher on Unsplash