‘If artificial intelligence creates better art, what’s wrong with that?’ Top Norwegian investor and art collector Nicolai Tangen

Nicolai Tangen’s fund has chastised big oil corporations for their role in the climate crisis but he still believes oil and gas have a role in the energy solution. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

For a prolific art collector, Nicolai Tangen is remarkably relaxed about the prospect of masterpieces created by robots. The threat of AI-made paintings, impossible to distinguish from human brushstrokes, has sparked soul-searching and paranoia in the art world, but not with Tangen.

“Hey, if it creates better art that’s fantastic,” says the Norwegian philanthropist, art historian and boss of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund. “If you create something which is even more aesthetically pleasing, what’s wrong about that?”