The planet is now being taken over by AI artwork. Some people worry that it may undermine more established forms of art; is this justified?
In this article, we explain what “AI art” is and show you the work of seven real-life artists who use deep learning, generative adversarial networks, and other algorithmic techniques to make stunningly beautiful art.
Many have speculated that we are approaching a “Gold Rush” of sorts for AI artists in light of this and the proliferation of similar works.
Yet the fact that the AI’s underlying code still has to be written by humans is often overlooked or forgotten in the fervor around AI-based artwork. One may thus argue that artificial intelligence artwork is nothing more than a novel, high-tech venue for human creativity.
The employment of computers in the artistic process is not novel at all. There is evidence that human musicians have been utilizing computers to expand their repertoire since the 1950s. University of Stuttgart’s Max Bense lab engineers were among the first to make significant strides in this area.
The employment of mainframe computers, plotters, and algorithms by artists such as Frieder Nake, Georg Nees, Manfred Mohr, Vera Molnár, and many others was investigated.
Where can I find any artworks created by artificial intelligence?
Do yourself a favor and check out some of the following works of AI art if you’re searching for some stimulating examples to ponder. This group of artists, hailing from many disciplines, is making waves in the art world with their AI-generated creations.
Sougwen Chung uses AI, robots and her own skill to create works of art
Sougwen Chung is a multi-award winning visual artist who investigates human-machine interaction via the use of both hand and digitally replicated markings. You may find the artists of artificial intelligence at aiartists.org.
To “address the proximity between person-to-person and person-to-machine contact,” Chung employs both her own hand and robots. She used to work at the MIT Media Lab, but she eventually struck out on her own and is now an Artist in Resident at Bell Labs and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.
The things she and her machine have made are stunning in their beauty and profound in their depth of meaning.
Memo Akten is another visionary AI artist
Memo Akten is a “philomath,” researcher, and AI artist located in London who examines human cognition through the lens of artificial intelligence. The breadth and depth of his body of work is impressive.
One such book, among many others, is titled “Deep Meditations.” He “taught” a neural network to “see” visuals that stand in for some of life’s most fundamental ideas in order to create this artwork, an immersive video that lasts for an hour.
The AI was given a database of photographs that he labeled with phrases like everything, world, universe, space, mountains, etc., and was told to come up with its own representations of these concepts. You won’t believe it until you see the effects for yourself.
Another early innovator in the field of AI art is Mario Klingemann. He makes incredible artwork by programming neural networks to generate unique designs using complex algorithms.
A few years ago, his work “Memories of Passersby I” made headlines as one of the first works of AI art to sell at auction. He took home the British Library’s Creative Award in that year (2015). As of right now, he is also a machine learning artist in residence at the Google Cultural Institute in Paris.