Artificial intelligence (AI) is starting to impact the art world as it becomes more sophisticated. AI is used to create paintings, sculptures, and other works of art that are stunning in realism and complexity. This post will explore the fascinating world of AI art and see how machines change how we create!
AI Art’s Introduction To The World
The Artificial Intelligence art trend started in late 2016 when a group of Google researchers open-sourced their project called “DeepDream”. This machine learning algorithm produced dream-like images from input images by training on a large dataset of images. The results were interesting, and people worldwide started to experiment with the algorithm to produce even more fascinating AI-generated artworks.
Since then, many AI artists have emerged and are using GANs to create stunning works of AI art. Some notable AI artists include Mario Klingemann, Robbie Barrat, Memo Akten, Kyle McDonald, and Christopher Olah.
How Artificial Intelligence Creates Generative Art
Machine learning algorithms use a technology called General Adversarial Networks, or by the acronym GANs for short.
This seemingly simple process is more complicated than one might think since it is highly dependent on the size and, most importantly, the quality of the dataset and then the resulting time which has to be given to teaching the algorithm what is art.
Obviously there is a a huge reliance on computing power, parrellel networks, and graphics cards. The more computational power, the larger the training data set and the less time it takes for every model to train.
Training The Model To Know What Is Digital Art
In this context, “training the model”, in simple terms, means that the algorithm continuously generates images through the generator component, and the other model component, called the discriminator, “decides” whether the generator’s output is close to the original dataset or not.
So machine learning is the endless days of training to decide which is an art and which is not. From here, the model being built can now, based on what it learned during the training process, create something completely new that has never been drawn before, and this is AI Art!
We now live in a time when machine learning can engage in art creation and produce some real quality of digital output.
Machine Learning To Be Artists
The first question always asked is whenever dealing with technology – will is replace the human in the process?
The answer is probably no, at least anytime soon. AI algorithms, with appropriate training, can generate original images on their own. But like the famous quote from Douglas Adams “with infinite monkeys and infinite typewriters could write the complete works of Shakespear” a lot of the output either nonsense or horrible art. Human are needed as a team of people know what good art looks like and can select and classify only the best images with their styles. This image classification is the core of training the AI algorithms to increase the resolution of every selected image to allow for the better quality art output.
AI Art In Oils
One interesting trait of AI paintings is that in some of them, you see brush strokes and certain 3D elements that the AI overlaid on certain parts of the painting. Coupled with vector correction and resolution adjustment AI technologies, this allows for the creation of AI paintings with an oil-painting effect.
AI Art First Sold At Auction
One of the most early but still impressive examples of AI artwork is a painting created by the AI artist ” Robbie Barrat “. The painting, called ” Portrait of Edmond de Belamy “, is a realistic portrait of a man generated by an AI algorithm.
However, this portrait was not produced by human artists and went under the hammer in the Prints & Multiples sale at Christie’s on 25 October 2018.
Portrait of Edmond Belamy sold for an incredible $432,500 (when it was estimated to be worth between $7,000-$10,000), signaling the arrival of AI art on the world auction stage.
AI art is not just limited to paintings. AI algorithmic art has also generated sculptures, music, and even poetry. For example, the AI sculptor “Ai Weiwei” has created a series of portraits generated by an AI algorithm. These portraits are made from marble and are incredibly lifelike!
As you can see, AI is changing the way we create art. It provides us with new ways to create realistic and complex works of art. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of what AI can do for art, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds!
The AI Art Tools Go Public
In October 2019, Google released an AI art tool called ” AI Portraits “. This tool allows anyone to upload a photo of themselves and have it automatically turned into a portrait painting.
The AI Portraits tool is powered by a machine learning algorithm that has been trained on a dataset of portraits from the 14th to 20th centuries. The algorithm analyzes the input image and then tries to recreate it in the style of one of these historical portraits.
The AI Portraits tool is just one example of how AI is changing the way we create art. With this tool, anyone can create a realistic portrait painting, without any prior knowledge or experience in art. This shows that AI can be used to democratize art, and make it accessible to everyone.
The Explosion Of AI Art Tools
AI Art is a current exploding trend in the world of art. The concept is based on the idea that machine learning algorithms can produce new never seen before images as output when appropriately trained using large computational resources on a vast amount of image data.
With this recognition has been the launch of the following many and growing range of AI Art tools over the recent year or so bring wider access to creative adversarial network art :