On November 4th at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle’s Observatory of AI in the Arts and Media, Prof. Dr. Christian Katzenbach presented a lecture on “Controversies and Creative Work in the Formation of Generative AI”. This presentation was a part of the seminar series “Ecologies of AI in the Arts and Media: Criticalities, Materialities, Creativities”, organized in collaboration with the Young Universities for the Future of Europe.

When OpenAI’s image generator began producing images in the style of Studio Ghibli in early 2025, the internet flooded with imitations — and with debate. When asked for advice on personal problems and political questions, chatbots had been always eloquent until recent controversies about their outputs. Who sets the rules for what AI can and cannot create? And who benefits?

Prof. Dr. Katzenbach argues that generative AI does not simply emerge technologically, but rather that every technology incorporates normative decisions and potentially becomes an object of contestation. This begs the question, should a handful of powerful tech companies decide what counts as legitimate speech and acceptable creative practice? The talk highlights how companies such as Open AI, Anthropic and Google and their products shape the norms around AI, public norms and creativity, and how they are contested in public controversies. Preliminary results of media and policy analysis surface tension and contradiction: companies that publicly commit to, for example, respecting artists and their work, while simultaneously encouraging users to mimic popular styles and aesthetics — and quietly shifting responsibility onto users when things go wrong.