Paintings made by Xiao Bing. (Photo: CGTN)
Artists are experimenting with artificial intelligence in a Microsoft exhibition at the arts museum of China's Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing.
The exhibition "Alternative Worlds," which lasts until August 12, is the first AI art exhibition in China, with hundreds of paintings of different styles on display.
Microsoft's AI humanoid Xiao Bing made the paintings solely after learning art works of 236 famous human painters in the past 400 years. She comes up with hundreds of paintings in different styles to present in the exhibition.
Original pieces rather than reproduction
This is not the first time Xiao Bing's paintings appeared at CAFA. Her paintings were displayed together with other students' works at the post-graduate students' graduation exhibition held in May. Nobody found any difference between her works and those made by human beings.
According to Qiu Zhijie, curator of the exhibition of the "Alternative Worlds," Xiao Bing's painting ability is the same with the post-graduate students' from CAFA.
Before the exhibition, Xiao Bing spent 22 months studying over 5,000 art works of 236 famous human painters in the past 400 years of art history. It independently completed those original paintings with inspiration out of human paintings and other sources.
"The technology we used behind Xiao Bing is called 'Generative Adversarial Networks.' She is not merely copying and pasting, but 100 percent creating original pieces," said Li Di, deputy director of the Search Technology Center Asia.
Will AI replace human artists?
Gallery Director and inventor of Ai-Da the AI humanoid robot artist, Aidan Meller, (R) poses with Ai-Da and an oil painting on canvas (L) created by other artists based on a sketch by Ai-Da during a launch event for its first solo exhibition in Oxford on June 5, 2019. /VCG Photo
Before there was Xiao Bing, a robot called Ai-Da, opened her solo exhibition of drawings, paintings, sculptures and video art at the University of Oxford in June.
The robot, Cornish robotics company Engineered Arts, uses a robotic arm and a pencil to draw what it sees with a camera in its eye.
AI is bound to replace some work among the artists, but industry insiders believe human beings are still unsurpassable.
"Human being's creativity, especially creativity owned by people like Newton and Einstein, originates from strong desire spurted from the inner hearts. That's something the AI doesn't possess," Zhang Shuangnan, a researcher from Institute of High Energy Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at the opening ceremony of the "Alternative Worlds" exhibition.
Qiu Zhijie, curator of the exhibition, is also optimistic in human beings' creation.
"There won't be any art if there're only works of art and their makers. Art can be born only when it touches human beings," said Qiu, who is also a professor at CAFA.