Walter Benjamin Warned Us About AI
A Hyperallergic essay argues that German-Jewish philosopher and media theorist Walter Benjamin anticipated contemporary concerns about AI-generated imagery through his critique of photography. In his 1931 essay “A Little History of Photography,” Benjamin warned that photography can aestheticize objects—“endow any soup can with cosmic significance”—while erasing the human connections that give them meaning, making such images politically and ethically dangerous. The article links Benjamin’s ideas to the present-day appeal of polished images that can obscure harmful realities, such as industrial scenes that may conceal militarism. It notes that Benjamin’s 1931 text is the focus of a small presentation at the Jewish Museum, timed to coincide with the museum’s major Paul Klee exhibition.
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This story was covered in Bias Warnings, Billion-Dollar Openings, and Museum Heists