Beeple Artwork at Wisconsin Museum Generates Controversy over Use of AI: ‘Devoid of Any Critical Engagement’
An open letter with more than 600 signatures criticizes Beeple’s AI-driven artwork “Diffuse Control” (2025), scheduled to appear next month at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Wisconsin, arguing it is ethically and artistically problematic. The museum said the work uses images of 18 artworks from its holdings—by artists including Francisco Goya, Rosa Bonheur, James McNeill Whistler, Gertrude Abercrombie, Utagawa Hiroshige, and Barbara Rossi—and later clarified that the images are either public domain or used with permission from the appropriate copyright holders. The installation allows visitors to generate images displayed on screens and print them, and it previously appeared at the Shed in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2025, where it drew on a rotating selection from LACMA’s permanent collection. Museum director Paul Baker Prindle said generative AI raises questions about authorship, copyright, consent, artistic labor, and environmental impact, and that the institution aims to provide space for differing perspectives rather than endorse a single view.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Museums in Meltdown, Billionaires in Control