Entries for the 2018 RobotArt competitions are in. The top 10 teams have been announced, and you can see the robot-painters’ impressive works in an online gallery. This year’s first-place artist, CloudPainter used machine learning to generate portraits and landscapes (including a re-imagination of Cezanne). The second place team chose impressionistic paintings with “a high level of skill with brushstrokes,” and the third place team programmed a robot “brushstroke by stroke,” using haptic recording and playback to generate gorgeous reproductions of Van Gogh landscapes.

CloudPainter

For the first time this year, patrons can also buy AI produced paintings at the Seattle Art Fair on August 2-5th. Robot art creators range from engineers to schools and artists, and AI systems can create paintings from landscapes that mimic old masters to abstract, colorful pieces. "I think technology tools, such as the robotic art and algorithms that we're playing with here, opens us to a future that blurs the lines of what is the artist and what are you trying to accomplish with your medium," RobotArt founder Andrew Conru told Vice Creators.

Kasetsart University

For anyone worried that AI artists are going to take over jobs for human painters, not to worry, Conru says. “Human generate art will always be highly respected not only for its creativity but in our shared human experience. While we may be impressed by AI chess software, we are thrilled and impressed by human grandmasters.” In fact, AI could help humans artists create pieces that are more ambitious than before.



Worcester Polytechnic Institute

What’s holding AI artists back? It might be something as simple as a moderate-costing, high-quality robot arm, Conru told Futurism. There’s a big gap between a $300 arm accessible to the hobbyist and a $30,000 arm aimed for professionals. “Artists tend not to have tens of thousands lying around,” Conru said. Unless they’re winners of the RobotArt contest, of course, in which case they may just invest their winnings into the next robot Van Gogh.

(RobotArt via Futurism)

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