Abstract

In 2020, the launch of several high-profile generative AI tools for text, image, and video marked a significant shift in public engagement with artificial intelligence. The moment of the shift is captured by a GPT-3-authored article in _The Guardian_ provocatively titled “A robot wrote this entire article. Are you scared yet, human?” (GPT-3 2020 ). Since 2020, AI tools have become increasingly ubiquitous, eliciting both concern over potential societal threats and excitement for their progressive possibilities. In artistic circles, a pressing question emerged and continues to persist: what forms will culture, art, artists, experiences, and audiences take in a future where AI is omnipresent? Although the partnership between artists and AI predates such recent enquiry, the newfound accessibility of AI tools has thrust art and the artist’s evolving role into the spotlight. Numerous studies dive into the creative capabilities of AI and navigate the implications of AI-led art. This article attempts to pivot the conversation to investigate the phenomenological aspects of human–AI aesthetics. Of particular interest here is the spectator experience of AI-led art within the larger context of human–AI relationships. By examining Sougwen Chung’s _Assembly Lines_ and Sofia Crespo’s _Neural Zoo_, I interrogate the phenomenology of spectatorship in human–AI collaborative aesthetics, shedding light on the nuanced human–AI connections within cultural and domestic realms.