In chapter 10 of my forthcoming book, Friend & Ally, there’s an exchange between Nichole and her human friend, Mackenzie, who’s a wonderful artist:

“Oh.” Another bite. “So you’re an… android?”

“Yes! Completely self-aware and a fully stand-alone machine! But…” She looked about conspiratorially, leaning a little forward. She was very happy her friend leaned in, too! “…I’d rather stand with my friends than alone!”

Mackenzie leaned out, laughing out loud for once. A bit of crepe fell out of her mouth.

When she started on her second crepe, Nichole had them amble east and north, toward the river. Mackenzie could guess why. Indeed: coming to Naito Parkway, she spied Kongo’s mast in the distance. But, for now, she was too taken with the new world being opened up before her.

“Not at all!” Nichole had replied to her. “Several of my siblings are quite taken with art! My eldest sister, Hajime, does oil painting! If I can get some time on the PSU satellite links, I’ll try to print some copies for you!”

“That would be nice.” To look at art made by someone who wasn’t human… Mackenzie shuddered slightly in anticipation.

“You okay?” Nichole asked. They walked close to one another under her umbrella; typical for Portland, mostly cloudy had become light rain.

“Yeah.”

While horribly mischaracterized by the media (c’mon, Popular Mechanics!) as AIs, these are merely expert systems, using heuristics to create paintings the programmers want to see.  Real art by real AIs?  I seriously doubt we’d understand it.