{"id":3576,"date":"2024-10-26T11:30:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-26T11:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wansait.com\/tranzit\/?p=3576"},"modified":"2024-10-26T11:30:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-26T11:30:16","slug":"all-about-ai-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wansait.com\/tranzit\/blog\/all-about-ai-art\/","title":{"rendered":"All About AI Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The price of AI art: Has the bubble\u00a0burst?<\/h1>\n\n
\n
\n \n
\n Portrait of Edmond Belamy, 2018, created by GAN (Generative Adversarial Network), sold for US$432,500 on Oct. 25, 2019, at Christie\u2019s in New York.\n (Obvious)<\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n Amanda Turnbull<\/a>, York University, Canada<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

Last fall, an AI-generated portrait rocked the art world selling for a staggering US$432,500 at Christie\u2019s auction house<\/a> in New York. The portrait called \u201cEdmond de Belamy\u201d features a slightly out-of-focus man with no nose and a blob for a mouth, dressed in what seems to be a dark frock-coat over a white-collared shirt. <\/p>\n\n

From a distance, the 70 cm by 70 cm portrait printed on canvas and hung in a gilded wood frame, looks like it belongs in a museum of classical art. But upon closer inspection, the artist\u2019s signature \u2014 the mathematical formula that created it (min G max D x\u2009[log\u2009(D(x))] + z\u2009[log (1\u2009\u2013\u2009D\u2009(G(z)))]) \u2014 reveals that the artist was not human.<\/p>\n\n

With this astonishing achievement, we seemed poised to usher in art\u2019s next medium \u2014 and possibly even to redefine what it means to be an artist. But in November 2019, another in the Belamy series, \u201cLa Baronne de Belamy,\u201d sold at Sotheby\u2019s<\/a> without the same success. \u201cLa Baronne\u201d sold for only US$25,000, just slightly more than its estimated value. Has the AI art bubble burst?<\/p>\n\n

What is AI art?<\/h2>\n\n

The Belamy series was created via machine learning by the Paris-based arts collective known as \u201cObvious<\/a>.\u201d They fed thousands of portraits into an algorithm, effectively teaching the machine portraiture techniques of the 18th century. The result was a series of 11 images known as the fictional \u201cLa Famille de Belamy<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Like the girl in Johannes Vermeer\u2019s famous painting, \u201cGirl with a Pearl Earring<\/a>,\u201d Edmond de Belamy does not exist. The painting instead is a \u201ctronie,\u201d which is derived from the Dutch word for face. A tronie exists only in the artist\u2019s imagination. There is no story behind the painting \u2014 no wealthy member of society being immortalized on canvas, no scandal surrounding it and not even admiration for the subject of the portrait. It is the viewer\u2019s imagination, which is forced to start afresh, that makes interpretations about what is being viewed. <\/p>\n\n

In the case of \u201cEdmond de Belamy,\u201d it is more complicated. It is not the work of the artist\u2019s imagination, but in fact, the work of the algorithm\u2019s \u201cimagination.\u201d \u201cEdmond de Belamy\u201d is work of art captured by the \u201cmind\u201d of an artist that is not human. <\/p>\n\n

\n \"\"\n
\n Girl with a Pearl Earring (circa 1665) is a painting by Johannes Vermeer.<\/span>\n (Johannes Vermeer)<\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Algorithm vs algorithm<\/h2>\n\n

The machine learning system used to create the Belamy series is a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). Essentially, it is a system that pits algorithms against each other in order to improve the quality of the results. <\/p>\n\n

One algorithm generates data and the other competes with it, discriminating between the real and false data being produced. The entire system is described as \u201cadversarial.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

GANs were first created in 2014 by Ian Goodfellow<\/a>, a computer scientist. In a salute to Goodfellow, Obvious translated his name to be used for their series of art: good and fellow translate roughly into French as \u201cbel ami\u201d hence, Belamy.<\/p>\n\n

But, is this really art?<\/h2>\n\n

GANs present us with an entirely new way of understanding art, which was once exclusively the domain of human beings. And while its products and processes may prove to be beneficial, this type of art blurs the distinction between humans and machines, raising ethical, regulatory and process conundrums in society. Can an AI be an artist? And if so, what is an artist? Or is the AI simply a tool, like a paintbrush?<\/p>\n\n

Proponents of AI art see its worth not only in the end product of what it creates, like \u201cEdmond de Belamy,\u201d but also in the process of creating the artwork. So, for example, is the Belamy series a collaboration of artist and machine exploring new visual forms? This is not unlike the form of conceptual art where the idea behind the work and the process of creating it is more important than the outcome.<\/p>\n\n

Further, if we do consider it to be art, who \u2014 or what \u2014 has the right to the art it creates? The AI itself? The group that owns the AI, like Obvious? Or the coder of the algorithm? <\/p>\n\n

\n \"\"\n
\n \u2018La Baronne de Belamy\u2019 is a painting created by Ai to look like work by an 18th century painter.<\/span>\n Obvious<\/span><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

This question arose, in fact, with the success of \u201cEdmond de Belamy.\u201d While Obvious claimed responsibility for the 11 portraits in the Belamy series, a teenager developed the code responsible for the series. <\/p>\n\n

Robbie Barrat<\/a>, at the age of 17, started experimenting with AI and art, and uploaded the code he had used to make paintings to GitHub<\/a>, a code-sharing platform that enabled others to download and learn from it.<\/p>\n\n

Obvious has never denied that their work has relied on others \u2014 a fact evident in their homage to Goodfellow (\u201cbel ami\u201d) and also in acknowledging the work of Robbie Barrat on their website. But it raises more questions about the right to the artwork and where we should draw the line.<\/p>\n\n

The AI art bubble may have burst, but the questions of what is art and who is the artist raised by AI art remain. <\/p>\n\n

[ You\u2019re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation\u2019s authors and editors.<\/em> You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter<\/a>. ]\"The<\/p>\n\n

Amanda Turnbull<\/a>, Teaching Assistant and PhD Law student, York University, Canada<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The price of AI art: Has the bubble\u00a0burst? Portrait of Edmond Belamy, 2018, created by GAN (Generative Adversarial Network), sold for US$432,500 on Oct. 25, 2019, at Christie\u2019s in New York. (Obvious) Amanda Turnbull, York University, Canada Last fall, an AI-generated portrait rocked the art world selling for a staggering US$432,500 at Christie\u2019s auction house… Read More »All About AI Art<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-art"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wansait.com\/tranzit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/pixopictura_expo002-600x4001.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IfCq-VG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3418,"url":"https:\/\/wansait.com\/tranzit\/blog\/possible-portraits-goethe\/","url_meta":{"origin":3576,"position":0},"title":"Possible portraits: Goethe","author":"hrnicu","date":"April 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a prominent figure in German literature and one of the most celebrated writers of the 18th and early 19th centuries, is often depicted in various portraits that capture different aspects of his persona. 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