This protest had real bite.
An undergraduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks was arrested after storming a campus art gallery and ripping down AI-generated photos — chomping and spitting out the pieces in a protest.
But in an ironic twist, he destroyed work that was warning about AI’s dangers, not celebrating it.
A student at the school is alleged to have torn at least 57 of the 160 Polaroid-style prints off the wall during what officers described as an anti-AI crusade inside the Fine Arts Complex on Tuesday, causing an estimated $220 in damage, according to a police report posted on Reddit.
Graham Granger, an undergraduate in UAF’s film and performing arts program, was taken into custody and charged with fifth-degree criminal mischief, a Class B misdemeanor under Alaska law, according to the student newspaper The Sun Star.
Granger, who is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday, told police he destroyed the artwork because it was made using artificial intelligence, according to the police report.
The damaged images came from “Shadow Searching: ChatGPT psychosis,” an exhibition by Masters of Fine Arts candidate Nick Dwyer that grappled with identity and the psychological toll of prolonged interaction with artificial intelligence.
The exhibit consisted of AI-generated images and was shown alongside work by other MFA candidates as part of a rotating gallery show.
The show was part of a scheduled exhibition featuring five MFA candidates, University officials said.
Dwyer said he began incorporating AI into his work around 2017 or 2018, after years of making art without it.
He said the vandalism of his exhibit “highlights and embodies a growing trend that can be dangerous or unpredictable which you are not immune to,” according to The Sun Star.
The MFA candidate said he personally experienced what he described as AI psychosis after years of working closely with the technology.
“When you make art, you become vulnerable and so the artwork is vulnerable and that’s something that makes it seem more alive or more real or in the moment,” he told the school paper.
Granger declined to comment when reached by The Post.
The Post could not immediately reach Dwyer and the campus police department for comment.