# The Mechanical Turkness: Tactical Media Art and the Critique of Corporate AI

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.17490 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17490/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 2 of its 70 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 27 Feb 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Understanding and Creating Art with AI: Review and Outlook](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09109/) (2021)
- [Is Writing Prompts Really Making Art?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.13049/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The extensive industrialization of artificial intelligence (AI) since the mid-2010s has increasingly motivated artists to address its economic and sociopolitical consequences. In this chapter, I discuss interrelated art practices that thematize creative agency, crowdsourced labor, and delegated artmaking to reveal the social rootage of AI technologies and underline the productive human roles in their development. I focus on works whose poetic features indicate broader issues of contemporary AI-influenced science, technology, economy, and society. By exploring the conceptual, methodological, and ethical aspects of their effectiveness in disrupting the political regime of corporate AI, I identify several problems that affect their tactical impact and outline potential avenues for tackling the challenges and advancing the field.