CNN —
In 2018, Christie’s held its first auction for a work of art produced by artificial intelligence (AI), which sold for $432,500.
But Hong Kong-based cross-media artist Victor Wong didn’t think the painting — which looks like a blurry oil painting of a man — was anything that revolutionary. “It totally mimics human work, it wasn’t something different,” he said.
So the creative — who has a degree in electrical engineering and whose work spans movie special effects, art tech installations, and sculpture, among other art forms — decided to make something unique.
His creation, AI Gemini, is an AI-driven robot that creates traditional Chinese landscape paintings — the “first-ever artificial intelligence ink artist in the world,” according to 3812 Gallery, which represents Wong. (AI Gemini has no relation to Google’s generative AI chatbot of the same name).
It uses a robotic arm, purchased online and re-programmed, with an attached paintbrush. An algorithm interprets data sets of Wong’s choosing, directing the robotic arm to paint mountain contours to form a landscape on Xuan paper, a thin rice paper traditionally used for painting.
One series of paintings, inspired by China sending a lunar rover to the far side of the moon, used information from a public NASA 3D moon map. He’s also used data such as stock prices, where the stock index ups and downs can be interpreted as mountains and valleys, he says.
The application of colors is based on deep learning and training in traditional ink landscape painting, and the amount of water used depends on changes in humidity, Wong explains. It takes about eight to 10 hours to produce a painting that’s one meter (about three feet) tall and wide, he adds.
Since Wong launched AI Gemini, he’s held exhibitions in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, and London. He says his paintings have sold for around $20,000 to individual collectors, and he’s worked on projects for corporates like Hong Kong’s flagship airline Cathay Pacific.
Ink landscape paintings date back thousands of years in China. Yet Wong says that by combining the ideas of humans with the capabilities of technology, he hopes to create “something that hasn’t been seen before.”
Innovation and art
The use of AI to create artwork is controversial. Earlier this year, more than 6,500 people signed an open letter calling on Christie’s New York to cancel a sale dedicated solely to art created with the technology — the first of its kind for a major auction house. The sale, which went ahead, brought in $729,000.
Critics say that AI art lacks originality and artists complain that it’s based on copyrighted images.
Wong doesn’t directly use AI-generated images. Instead of “training AI Gemini to copy the masters’ artwork” says Wong, he wrote an algorithm to mimic how the master’s work.
He says that the paintings he and AI Gemini create are original but adds that people attending his exhibitions will still sometimes exclaim, “It’s not art!”
Others are experimenting with combining robotics and art. A humanoid robot named Ai-Da is prompted by AI to create a painting, and artist Sougwen Chung has trained robots to paint with them on large canvases.
Wong believes in innovation as a creative force. “Technology and art have never been separated,” he says.
He points to the invention of the paint brush — in China the tool became widespread during the Han dynasty, which lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD — that enabled art forms like calligraphy.
He adds that in the 15th century, artists including Leonardo da Vinci used innovative techniques like linear perspective, a mathematical system that uses a series of converging lines to create perspective in drawings and paintings.
“The master always has a secret recipe to do their work,” he says. “They always use the latest technology at the time.”
Employing artificial intelligence in art is simply a continuation of the trend, he believes, and one that is inevitable.
“AI has become a part of life, and people still cannot really accept it, especially when it comes to art,” says Wong. But, he adds: “You cannot escape AI.”