AI + Art : a new unique blend.
Art is a form of self expression; a product of human creativity and imagination. It is one of the few things that excludes logic, leaving space for emotions and perspective to appreciate it. All of the above ideas: creativity, imagination, emotions and perspective are intangible human traits to the core, one can’t explain them nor replicate them because we ourselves might never truly understand it.
“ The aim of art is not to represent the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance”
— Socrates
Yet, as technology has progressed, so has the way we create art. It gave us a faster medium for the world to share their creations and to be recognised for it. Film-making, graphic designing and illustrations are few of the many new doors that technology opened for the world of self-expression.
Artificial Intelligence is one of the fastest growing technologies and is considered to be the future. AI art is the newest development in this field. Computational creativity now gives machines the ability to create their own paintings from their ‘imagination’ and even compose music.
One of the first AI-generated artwork was sold was at the Grand Palais, the Salon de Comparaison on February 13, 2018. This was created by an AI artist and scientist known as “ALAgrApHY” .
Although some people have found this art form strange, some were intrigued by it. An auction sale of AI art that took place at Christie’s Auction House in New York, an AI artwork was sold for $432,500; almost 45 times higher than its estimated selling price of $7,000-$10,000. The artwork was created by “Obvious”, a collective based in Paris.
Google’s PoemPortraits for example is another AI tool that uses 20 million words from 19th century poems to produce a unique 2 line poem from the donated word. Here is one it produced with the word “tyranny”.
“My tyranny has sighed, Your cool clouds fall to the sunshine”
Now it is difficult to say if this would make sense. Several questions are raised regarding the authenticity of this art. Can we even call it art? Can machines have a consciousness to produce such products?
These are some questions that are raised, what do you think? My next post will be catering to the production of AI art, the tools and techniques that are used.
I hope this post was interesting. Good day :)
Anushri Iyer is a Student Ambassador in the Inspirit AI Student Ambassadors Program. Inspirit AI is a pre-collegiate enrichment program that exposes curious high school students globally to AI through live online classes. Learn more at https://www.inspiritai.com/
