AI Ethics & Transparency

Philly Art Map was built by an artist, for artists — and that comes with a responsibility to be transparent about how this tool was made.

This site was developed using an AI-assisted coding platform that translates written descriptions into functional web code. Think of it less like generative AI and more like a highly responsive drag-and-drop builder — one that made it possible for a single artist, without a development budget or technical background, to build infrastructure this community has needed for a long time.

No AI was used to generate any content, imagery, curatorial voice, or editorial decisions on this site. Every recommendation, every description, every word you read here is written by a human who loves Philadelphia's art scene.

The platform we used writes code. It does not create art, replace artists, or profit from creative labor. Your data — and data submitted by galleries and venues — is not used to train any AI model.

We also thought carefully about environmental impact. AI coding tools consume more energy than a traditional code editor, and building this site required a period of active development that carries a compute footprint comparable to heavy internet use over a weekend. Now that it's live, it operates like any standard website — no ongoing AI inference, no continuous model calls. We won't invent a carbon number we can't verify. What we can say is that we built it once, intentionally, in service of a community.

We take the art world's concerns about AI seriously. The anxiety is legitimate: generative tools trained on artists' work without consent, AI-generated imagery flooding galleries and competitions, creative labor being devalued. We share those concerns. This is not that.

Philly Art Map exists because community infrastructure shouldn't require a competitive grant or a tech co-founder. We'll update this page if our use of AI ever changes.

Questions? See About or read our privacy policy.