AI x Creativity News: July, 2025
Recent News at the Intersection of AI x ART
Recent News at the Intersection of AI x ART
Sky News: “The King and AI: A humanoid robot has painted a picture of Charles. How did it do?”
The Verge: “AI residencies are trying to change the conversation around artificial art”
Associated Press: “Judge dismisses authors’ copyright lawsuit against Meta over AI training”
AI Schisms: Fair Use vs. Fair Pay
As fireworks lit up the sky this Fourth of July in America, it’s worth remembering the Founders’ original take on copyright: it wasn’t about glorifying creators—it was about empowering the public. The Constitution gave authors limited rights only to “promote the Progress” of knowledge and art.
Europe? A different story. Rooted in Romanticism, it treated creative work as sacred—an extension of the author’s soul—with “moral rights” that persist long after expression.
That philosophical divide is surfacing in the global AI debate. Recently, in the U.S., a California court partially ruled in favor of Anthropic’s use of copyrighted materials to train its AI, invoking fair use – an American doctrine rooted in public access and innovation. Meanwhile, in the U.K., the House of Lords called for stricter copyright controls on AI training data, reflecting Europe’s creator-centric approach.
So who’s right? Is authorship a personal legacy – or a building block. The answer may determine whether the future of art is open to all—or fenced off for a few.
When the Tramp Remained Silent
This July, a new report from Fabrik revealed what most filmmakers already feel: AI is everywhere – storyboarding, editing, even voiceovers. Yet, many directors are saying “no thanks.” A growing wave is going full analog, editing by hand and shooting on film, in the name of protecting the “soul of storytelling.”
They aren’t the first to say no to the machines. In 1928, following the release of The Jazz Singer, the first “talkie” film, Charlie Chaplain refused to have the Tramp speak. As most of Hollywood rushed into a new sound era, Chaplain continued making silent films for nearly a decade. He argued that audible words would limit the emotional expressiveness of the characters. It would dilute the heart and soul of film.
Perhaps something was lost with sound. But perhaps, like sound, AI can also make story telling deeper and more inclusive. Every tool we adopt reshapes the art we make – the calculus is what are we trading when we do it?
From Machine Guns to Tattoo Guns
If the movies taught us anything, it’s fear the robots with guns – from Terminator’s T-800 to Bladerunner’s Replicants, and on and on. But what if the robot isn’t holding a weapon… it’s got a tattoo needle?
Meet Tatoué, a French-designed industrial robot that’s been reprogrammed to ink human skin with surgical precision. It scans your arm in 3D, follows a mapped design, and tattoos it—perfectly, mechanically, and without questions or judgement about that Shrek tramp stamp you requested.
It began as an art school experiment. Now it asks something deeper: what happens when one of the most human acts of artistic expression—marking your own body—gets handed off to a machine?
Some say it’s sterile and soulless. Others call it safer and more accessible. Either way, the robots are here—not with bullets, but with ink. And they’re drawing on us.