Christie's first AI art auction provokes fierce debate – and it's hard to pick a side

An image of a giant woman with long orange hair in a spacesuit, on sale in an AI art auction at Christie's.

We've already seen auction houses start to flirt with AI art. Last year, the 'autonomous AI artist' Botto made $351,600 at Sotheby's. But Christie's decision to host an entire auction dedicated to AI art this month is sparking a fierce backlash.

The controversy is hardly surprising. Many of today's most popular AI image generators were trained on copyrighted material without permission, and there's also a fear that AI will put artists out of work. But not all AI art is theft. Is this the right fight for those opposed to image generation?