content note: fiction

Recently, brain interfacing technologies have been leveraged to make images and videos straight out of people’s heads. Some people are calling it art, but detractors say it isn’t art at all.

“It lacks any intentionality,” says prompt artist JustAlice. “All they do is lounge around, and the images are just handed to them. They don’t even need to verbalize what they want, or sort through results to choose the best one. And the results look like shit!” She shows me examples of what she considers bad brain art, furiously highlighting all the five-fingered hands. “Is it so hard to just pick up a keyboard?”

“It’s not like that at all,” says self-described brain artist Reverend Mind, who creates nudes in impossible geometries. “Brain art requires a lot of discipline. I have to train hard every day to achieve my artistic vision.” He gestures towards his recliner. “Sure, some people will just casually produce low quality brain art, but they can do that with AI too, and nobody ever questions that.”

tomato jam, an artist known for videos of cats that explode into goo, told me, “Brain ‘art’ poses serious ethical concerns. It’s founded on widespread brain surveillance and unethical experimentation. I wonder, how would ‘brain artists’ feel if they were the ones put under a knife?” He chuckles at the idea, and then takes out a notebook to write something down. “Brain… art… knife… murder,” he murmurs, followed by a loud guffaw. “Not to mention how bad it is for the environment. Do you have any idea how much energy it costs to feed the human brain?”

I met with brain artist Trash City to see what she thinks about the ethical issues. “Well, there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism. What, am I supposed to go vegan? Not even the anti-brains do that.” She jabs at her half-eaten burger to emphasize the point. She never eats the rest.

Later, she demonstrates brain art for me, producing on the spot a video depicting hypocritical traditional AI artists. I don’t quite get the joke, so instead I remark on how generic the hands look. She admits it’s not her best work, and she looks forward to the inevitable improvements in the technology. “Won’t that require even more surveillance?” I ask her. She shrugs. “It will happen anyway.”

I reached out to Spam Saltman, CEO of Open Brain, for comment on the artistic uses of his company’s technology. He says, “We’re poised to create the God Brain, eliminating the need for billions of laborers across many industries.” The God Brain is an entity that Saltman claims communicates to him from the future. “If we can also bring the God Brain to art, then we must.”

CORRECTION: Spam Saltman has clarified that the God Brain cannot communicate through time, and that Open Brain only makes predictions about what the God Brain would say if it could. He expressed a high degree of confidence that the God Brain will not torture anyone’s clones. We apologize for the error.