I.A Patatras !
Artificial intelligence is invading our daily lives little by little, without us even noticing. We reassure ourselves that never, ever will “machines” achieve the essence of what makes women and men, they will never achieve consciousness, emotion or the act of creation.
When it comes to creating, we all like to think that only human beings are capable of creating, of “making art” in various forms; that this uniquely creative gesture could never be taken away from us by a “machine”.
Currently, a “machine” is incapable of “creating” anything without first being fed data in order to learn the task that we want it to do, in this case, draw a picture. Millions of data—drawings produced by humans—are therefore necessary to perform this machine learning.
In 2017, Google launched the website Quick and Draw—so that millions of people, unbeknownst to them, could produce millions of drawings of a bicycle, cat, dog, umbrella, Mona Lisa, bus, pig… to feed into a Machine Learning program.
Once the data—drawings—are harvested, developers can then rework and use these millions of free drawings to “feed” the Machine Learning program, which in this case, will create drawings on the fly. One of these programs, “Draw Together with a Neural Network” is available for testing online. You choose the object that you want the machine-program to draw, you start drawing the picture, and the machine-program continues.
For A.I Patatras! Albertine saved drawings produced for a bird, paintbrush, bus, pig, skull, rain, pink flamingo, angel and garden. Each picture was initiated from a circle drawn by Albertine.
Displayed on an atypical EP7 screen, A.I Patatras! illustrates the way in which “machines” start to know how to draw by imitating our own drawings. Passers-by will no doubt be surprised by these childlike drawings, gradually displayed, understanding through Albertine’s shout “A.I draws, beware of GAFA! Patatras” that these drawings are “artworks by a machine”.
Passers-by might also be surprised by the dexterity of the lines traced, some random and hesitant, others subtle and esthetic. Still missing, however, is the intensity and thickness of the line provided by the hand and the creator!
To be continued!
2018 – Albertine Meunier
