Eric Millikin
Eric Millikin is a Baltimore-based artist who was born in rural Michigan. He has over 30 years of experience creating internet, video, biological, computer, and artificial intelligence artwork. His work explores political, romantic, magic, and fantasy themes and has won over 50 international, national, and regional visual journalism awards (Millikin, n.d.). He is an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts, Animation, and Interactive Media at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County ("Millikin," n.d.). Professor Millikin told us about his career and his career highlights:
Millikin is a descendant of Mary Eastey, who was executed in the Salem Witch Trials, and he pays homage to his lineage through his work (Millikin, n.d., and Wikipedia). His work, Hollywood Witch Trials, is a series of portraits based on celebrity mug shots and excerpts from the transcripts of the Salem Witch Trials (Millikin, Hollywood, n.d.). It features portraits of Andre the Giant, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, David Bowie, Eminem, Kid Rock, and Bill Cosby, all accompanied by quotes from individuals found guilty of witchcraft during trials (Millikin, n.d.).
One of his earliest works, Witches and Stitches, is an authorized parody of The Wizard of Oz and is widely considered the first webcomic ("The History of Webcomics," 2018). Professor Millikin discussed the top of webcomics and more about his approach to art:
Image courtesy of Eric Millikin.
Refik Anadol
Refik Anadol is a Los Angeles-based AI artist born in Istanbul, and directs Refik Anadol Studio (Refik Anadol Studio, n.d.). His artwork combines the concepts of art and technology to create immersive experiences. Anadol is known for “data painting,” a unique approach involving using machines to transform quantifiable information into visual art (HiveMind, n.d.). He utilizes data-driven AI, in which custom machine-learning algorithms have been trained to expand his imagination and create his beautiful artwork (Anadol, 2023). He also teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Anadol is regarded as one of the most influential figures of AI art. He is widely credited with redefining how artificial intelligence can be used in collaboration rather than as a tool or competitor (Hern, 2023). His work helps push the boundaries of what AI can do and has helped change how the art world views technology (MoMA, n.d.).
Seungmin Lee
Daniel Seungmin Lee is a generative designer serving as the Head of Design at Refik Anadol Studio in Los Angeles. In this role, Mr. Lee heads the creative design on AI-driven art projects that blend art with machine learning. For example, in 2019, Lee was part of the lead creative team for Seoul Haemong, a large-scale generative light performance held at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, South Korea. Throughout his career, his work has bridged the gap between design, architecture, and artificial intelligence (Refik Anadol Studio, n.d.). Mr. Lee told us about his work and the work of Refik Anadol Studio, and his favorite project:
Mr. Lee was also part of the Refik Anadol Studio team that won the Platinum A Design Award 2022 for the project Nature Dreams. This award showcases the contributions of the creative team, including Mr. Lee (A' Design Award and Competition, 2022).
The Growth of AI Art
AI-generated art is artwork created with the assistance of artificial intelligence. This process involves algorithms that learn from data inputs and are used to generate new, original art pieces. This art can take many forms, including digital images, music, films, etc. It has challenged the status quo by introducing a partnership between humans and machines, rather than a competition. Artificial intelligence can help create this art through input data and datasets. The data serves as a catalyst, comprising extensive datasets encompassing various artistic styles and influences. This is then added to the AI, allowing it to recognize nuances and styles within the data. (Interaction Design Foundation, n.d.) Professor Millikin provided further explanation and offered insight into the tools he has used in his career, the history of AI, and his experience working with datasets.
Issues with AI Art
Copyright Law
Artists of any type need to understand how copyright law works, as art is a type of copyrightable work. U.S. copyright law grants six exclusive rights to copyright owners: the right to reproduce a work, the right to create derivative works, the right to distribute a work, the right to perform a work publicly, the right to display a work publicly, and the right to perform a work digitally. These exclusive rights help protect these artists (Copyright Alliance, n.d.).
However, a federal appeals court in Washington, DC, recently concluded that a work of art generated by artificial intelligence without human input could not be copyrighted under U.S. copyright law. Creator Stephen Thaler's AI system, DABUS, created an image independently. He disagreed with the ruling, but the court’s decision was upheld on appeal (Raymond, 2025). Professor Millikin explained certain legal issues relating to copyright, fair use, and AI art, and other problems:
Ghiblification
One example of AI being used to create art is the recent “Ghibli-faction” trend. With the launch of OpenAI’s new image generator, Studio Ghibli-inspired images have grown in popularity. Many users upload images into ChatGPT and ask it to turn their pictures into different cartoon styles, with Ghibli’s style being the most popular and trending on social media (DiPlacido, 2025). The studio is known for its bubbly, homey animation style; however, this trend contradicts the wishes of Studio Ghibli and its co-founder, Hayao Miyazaki. In 2016, when asked about his thoughts on AI art in his documentary, Miyazaki stated that the art is “an insult to life itself” (The Independent, 2025). We asked Professor Millikin and Mr. Lee about their thoughts on the trend:
References
Anadol, R. (2023). Machine hallucinations: Nature dreams. A’ Design Award. https://competition.adesignaward.com/press-release.php?ID=137691
A' Design Award and Competition. (2022). Nature Dreams art installation by Refik Anadol Studio. Retrieved April 29, 2025, from https://competition.adesignaward.com/press-release.php?ID=13769
Copyright Alliance. (n.d.). What are the exclusive rights of copyright? Retrieved April 29, 2025, from https://copyrightalliance.org/education/copyright-law-explained/copyright-owners-rights/copyright-exclusive-rights/
DiPlacido, D. (2025, March 27). The AI-generated Studio Ghibli trend explained. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2025/03/27/the-ai-generated-studio-ghibli-trend-explained/
Hern, A. (2023, September 28). Refik Anadol: How I turned MoMA’s collection into AI art. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/sep/28/refik-anadol-moma-collection-ai-art
HiveMind. (n.d.). Inside the collection: Refik Anadol – Synthetic Dreams (2021), Winds of Yawanawá (2023). HiveMind Capital. https://www.hivemind.capital/content/inside-the-collection-refik-anadol-synthetic-dreams---landscapes-2021-winds-of-yawanawa-2023
Interaction Design Foundation. (n.d.). AI-generated art. Retrieved April 29, 2025, from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/ai-generated-art
Millikin, E. (n.d.). https://ericmillikin.com
Millikin, E. (n.d.). Hollywood Witch Trials. Eric Millikin. Retrieved April 29, 2025, from https://ericmillikin.com/home/eric-millikin-hollywood-witch-trials
MoMA. (n.d.). Unsupervised: Refik Anadol. The Museum of Modern Art.
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5443
Raymond, N. (2025, March 18). U.S. appeals court rejects copyright for AI-generated art lacking human creator. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-appeals-court-rejects-copyrights-ai-generated-art-lacking-human-creator-2025-03-18/
Refik Anadol Studio. (n.d.). Studio. Retrieved April 29, 2025, from https://refikanadolstudio.com/studio/
The Comics Journal. (n.d.). The history of webcomics. Retrieved April 29, 2025, from https://www.tcj.com/the-history-of-webcomics/
The Independent. (2025, March 28). Hayao Miyazaki brands viral AI trend "an insult to life itself." https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/news/hayao-miyazaki-studio-ghibli-ai-trend-b2723358.html
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Eric Millikin. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 29, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Millikin