Alaska student arrested for eating another’s A.I. artwork

A student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has been arrested and charged with a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief for allegedly eating an artwork made by another student using artificial intelligence.

Graham David Granger, a 19-year-old freshman in the film and performing arts program, was charged in a case filed last week in Fairbanks District Court, according to court records reviewed by Urgent Matter. Court records indicate he was released from custody under standard conditions following the filing of the initial charging document.

Granger was detained last Tuesday after he had been found “ripping artwork off the walls and eating it in a reported protest,” student newspaper The Sun Star reported, citing the university police department.

At the time he was arrested, Granger was allegedly “chewing and spitting out” artwork made by Nick Dwyer, a student in the Master of Fine Arts program, that had been pinned to the wall, the student newspaper reported.

Police said Granger admitted to eating the artwork because it was A.I. generated. At least 57 of the 160 artworks hung on the gallery wall were reported to be damaged. Prosecutors alleged in court records that Granger caused property damage valued at less than $250.

Granger is scheduled to be arraigned on January 20 in Fairbanks District Court. A pretrial conference is set for March 5, followed by a scheduled trial week beginning March 16, according to the court calendar. Judge Maria P. Bahr is assigned to the case.

Dwyer told the student newspaper he started using A.I. in his art as early as 2017. In his artist statement for the destroyed exhibit, Dwyer said his 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 A.I. psychosis.”

The artist told the newspaper that he previously fell into “A.I. psychosis,” which is not a recognized diagnosis in the DSM-5-TR. There is currently no formally accepted clinical definition of the term in psychiatry or clinical psychology.

However, a special report from the American Psychiatric Association in September warned that “A.I.-induced psychosis” has become a “new frontier in mental health.”

“This highlights and embodies a growing trend that can be dangerous or unpredictable which you are not immune to,” Dwyer said. “When you make art, you become vulnerable and so the artwork is vulnerable and that's something that makes it seem more alive or more real or in the moment.”

Follow along with other art crime stories at Urgent Matter’s art crime tracker.