Phd in HISTORY OF ART

Thesis title: Le Intelligenze artificiali nel panorama artistico contemporaneo. Potenzialità e criticità dell’uso delle reti neurali e di grandi dataset storico-artistici

Between 2014 and 2024, the diffusion of artificial intelligence and neural networks opened a profound debate within the contemporary art scene and the field of the humanities. This research aims to map the connections between artificial intelligence and contemporary art, with the objective of investigating how the creative processes of a wide range of artists are linked to the use of digitized art-historical repertoires and AI-based tools. The study examines both the potential and the critical issues arising from the use of neural networks and large image archives, exploring the role of open data and digital collections in the training process of AI models, while highlighting the ethical implications associated with the presence of cultural biases. The research includes a reflection on the role of data representation within the models’ latent space, an investigation into the use of neural networks in cultural institutions, and a critical analysis of 170 artists and collectives active between 2014 and 2024. It identifies the main research directions and the ways in which artificial intelligence is employed both as a generative instrument and as a critical agent to question the notion of authorship and the distortions inherent in the models.