Authenticity and Value in AI-Generated Artworks: A Critical Reassessment of Artistic Aura

Citation: Olena Kotenko, "Authenticity and Value in AI-Generated Artworks: A Critical Reassessment of Artistic Aura", Universal Library of Arts and Humanities, Volume 02, Issue 04.

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The intensive adoption of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in artistic production during 2023–2025 leads to a profound ontological shift that calls into question established conceptions of authorship, the creative act, and the mechanisms by which artistic value is formed. Within the article, an extended academic reconceptualization of the paradigm of aura is undertaken under conditions of algorithmically mediated image synthesis. The initial epistemological foundation is Benjamin’s understanding of aura, juxtaposed with the newest theoretical models of A(I)aura, on the basis of which the concept of Digital Innerism is formulated and argued as a methodological and philosophical framework in which AI is conceived not in the mode of a mechanical generator of visual outputs, but as a medium of introspective work of consciousness. Reliance on a cross-analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from the Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report 2024 and the Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2024, in combination with an analysis of the artist’s creative practice, makes it possible to identify the formation of a specific inner aura. Its ontological status is associated not with the material singularity of the artwork, but with the emotionally charged intentionality of prompt engineering and a complex configuration of institutional validation, including expert, curatorial, and market mechanisms. The results obtained demonstrate a process of bifurcation of the art market: classical models of expertise and evaluation become drawn into a crisis of trust, whereas the emerging economy of post-authenticity constructs new regimes of legitimating AI art through curatorial gatekeeping, the neuropsychological resonance of viewers’ perception, and a shift of authenticity criteria from the domain of the material carrier to the domain of cognitive-emotional experience.

Keywords: Generative AI, Benjamin’s Aura, A(I)Aura, Digital Innerism, Inner Aura, Authenticity, Art Market, Institutional Validation.

https://doi.org/10.70315/uloap.ulahu.2025.0204016