Alaska student arrested after eating AI-generated art in protest
A University of Alaska Fairbanks student was arrested on a criminal mischief charge after tearing down and eating dozens of AI-generated art pieces in a campus gallery as a protest against AI in art.
On 13 January 2026, Graham Granger, a film and performing arts major at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief after ripping AI-assisted artwork from a campus gallery wall and eating around 57 of the images as part of what he described as a protest and performance piece against the use of AI in art.
The destroyed exhibit, titled Shadow Searching: ChatGPT psychosis, was created by another student, Nick Dwyer, using AI to explore his personal experiences with the technology.
Dwyer criticised Granger’s actions as damaging to the artist’s work and initially considered pressing charges, though he later dropped those in favour of the state pursuing the case.
Granger defended his act as both protest and performance art, arguing that reliance on AI undermines human creativity and that the process of making art matters as much as the finished product. He said he did not regret the incident and saw it as a way to spark conversation about the role of AI in creative fields.
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