Nick Dwyer, the graduate student whose artwork was destroyed, signed an affidavit Feb. 3 in support of a motion dismissing the misdemeanor criminal mischief charge against Graham Granger. Prosecutors followed suit Feb. 19, before the judge had ruled on the motion.
Granger posted a video of himself eating the AI-generated art on YouTube shortly after the case was dismissed. State prosecutors are no longer pursuing charges against a University of Alaska Fairbanks student who, in an act of protest, ate AI-generated art displayed on campus.
Graham Granger, 20, had faced one count of misdemeanor fifth-degree criminal mischief after his Jan. 13 arrest. Prosecutors dismissed the single count on Feb. 19, an outcome both parties had sought after reaching a monetary compromise, according to court records. The charge initially came after Granger ripped up and chewed the artwork of UAF Master of Fine Arts student Nick Dwyer in January, the same day of the arrest. Dwyer's work, titled"Shadow Searching: ChatGPT Psychosis," was part of an exhibit at the UAF Art Gallery involving a handful of graduate-level students. Dwyer had created a series of images in concert with artificial intelligence, a process Granger objects to.The case stayed open for about two weeks after those filings. That was until the Fairbanks District Attorney's Office decided to drop the case before the judge had ruled on the motion to dismiss. The case closed the same day, Feb. 19, with that motion consequently deemed moot. Fairbanks District Attorney Joe Dallaire said in an emailed statement that his office talked with Dwyer on multiple occasions about how he wanted to proceed with the case. Dallaire also noted the defense's motion and Dwyer's accompanying affidavit, and he wrote that input from victims is"critical to us making decisions that serve the interests of justice." Granger, a sophomore in UAF's film and performing arts program, said in an interview that he's glad the case is over. He said he probably won't repeat his actions, but he didn't count out protesting AI in art in other ways. "I think that repeating it wouldn't have the same impact it has had, just because it's been done," he said."It would have to be something totally different."Granger said the case's dismissal has allowed him to speak more freely with people about what happened, and about a week ago, he posted aof the whole thing on YouTube that he recorded on his phone. He said he'd planned to use it as a performance piece in hopes of keeping the conversation going about AI in art. The video is titled"0 Calories." "I was eating something that had little to no substance, and art made by AI has no substance – because it's not made by somebody," he said of the title. The video starts by showing the 160 small images arranged neatly together in a 32x5 rectangle on the UAF Art Gallery Wall. Two water bottles sit on the floor. Granger approaches the images within the first few seconds of the video. He yanks one off the wall from the top left of the arrangement, before turning back to face the camera and taking his first bite. The video runs roughly 21 minutes and had about 1,700 views as of Monday. It shows Granger tearing the work from the gallery wall over and over again and putting it in his mouth. He occasionally drinks from one of the water bottles. Bystanders audibly start to engage with him in the latter half of the video recording, and he answers their questions with head shakes and hand gestures. Granger continues stuffing more images into his mouth as they talk, and paper bits of the artwork start falling at his feet with greater frequency. The final 30 seconds show two UAF Police Department officers arriving and escorting Granger out of the frame before the video ends. Police estimated Granger destroyed 57 of the images. Dwyer, who teaches a ceramics course at UAF, couldn't be reached for comment in time for this story. But the Sun Star, UAF's student-run newspaper,His artist statement said the work"explores identity, character narrative creation and crafting false memories of relationships in an interactive role digitally crafted before, during and after a state of AI psychosis," the paper reported.
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