THE COMMODIFICATION OF CULTURE: HOW AI AFFECTS KAZAKHSTANI ARTISTS' ART PRODUCTION

Abstract

The emergence of generative Artificial Intelligence on the global stage has brought much controversy regarding its impact on artists. While some artists embraced this technology by using it as a new medium, others were concerned about the unemployment following it. At the moment, we see how generative Artificial Intelligence is gradually spreading in Kazakhstan. However, since the issue of generative AI has not been previously studied in this country, and since most artists around the world express concerns about this technology, it was decided to explore the degree and complexity of Kazakhstani artists’ social acceptance of such technology. For this purpose, semi-structured in-depth in-person interviews with traditional and digital artists from Almaty and Astana were conducted. Participants were identified through convenience sampling followed by snowball sampling. The project also featured the art exhibition with AI-generated and artist-created works, where the audience had to distinguish these works. As a result of the interviews, it was discovered that Kazakhstani artists are resistant to accepting generative AI due to concerns about unemployment, uncertainty, and enslavement. Whereas the exhibition demonstrated the similarity of the AI-generated and artists-created works and the audience’s inability to distinguish them, leading to the aforementioned concerns. Furthermore, it was discovered that the unemployment affected by generative AI in Kazakhstan may be higher in future, compared to Western countries. In this way, such resistance to accept the technology is explained by the devaluation of artists’ cultural capital. It would be beneficial to conduct a similar study in the future with a larger sample size, possibly using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, since the AI field is rapidly evolving, which was demonstrated by the exhibition results.