Google recently demonstrated a series of “inceptionism” artwork created by artificial neural networks. The networks use 10 to 30 stacked layers of artificial neurons which process an image and try to interpret what is being shown. The networks attempt to recognize pieces of an image and generate a heightened version of how they interpret what they “see,” but can often misinterpret the source resulting in things like images of birds generated from an image of leaves.

The networks can also process truly beautiful abstract images out of source materials of simple static and color noise. Google has posted a stunning gallery of “inceptionism” images on the newly launched Google Photos service.

images via Google