Pitjantjatjara artist Sally Scales says AI-generated copies of First Nations art can take control away from artists and misuse cultural knowledge.

Made by artificial intelligence rather than directly by a person.

Pitjantjatjara artist Sally Scales says AI-generated copies of First Nations art can take control away from artists and misuse cultural knowledge.

A term for Indigenous peoples in Australia.

Scales chairs the First Nations advisory group at the National Gallery of Australia.

Here, it refers to Indigenous peoples in Australia.

She also questions whether some designs were made with input from First Nations communities or artists.

Here, it refers to Indigenous peoples in Australia.

The National Association for the Visual Arts says Indigenous data sovereignty means First Nations peoples should have authority over their data, cultural material and knowledge.

Here, it refers to Indigenous peoples in Australia.

My reading is that AI makes an old question more urgent: who has the power to use and present First Nations art?

Here, it refers to Indigenous peoples in Australia.

She says AI work lacks the connection and lived experience behind an artist’s work, and calls it a theft of cultural knowledge.

Direct experience of life that informs an artist’s work.

She also questions whether some designs were made with input from First Nations communities or artists.

Ideas or contributions given to help shape the designs.

Most had no artist attribution.

Credit naming the artist who made the work.

The National Association for the Visual Arts says Indigenous data sovereignty means First Nations peoples should have authority over their data, cultural material and knowledge.

The right of a people to control how data about them is used.

In plain terms, the issue is not only who owns an image.

Said simply, without special or difficult language.

It is also who can use cultural material, and who gets to decide how it is represented.

Shown or described to other people.