Digital SAT Reading and Writing Practice Question #322

Text 1 Some contemporary art critics argue that the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence in artistic generation will inevitably lead to a "flattening" of aesthetic movements. Because generative algorithms are fundamentally designed to optimize for mass appeal by synthesizing vast datasets of existing popular art, these critics assert that the resulting outputs will converge on a homogenous, universally palatable style, permanently stripping the art world of the avant-garde friction and radical experimentation that drives true cultural evolution. Text 2 Historically, major technological shifts in art production—such as the invention of the camera or the development of synthetic pigments in the nineteenth century—initially provoked widespread anxiety about the death of artistic authenticity. Following the advent of photography, there was indeed a brief wave of intense representational mimicry. Ultimately, however, because the machine absorbed the burden of pure representation, human artists were actually liberated to pursue radically abstract and unconventional forms, birthing movements like Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the assertion in Text 1 about the "flattening" of aesthetic movements?