It is like when a student presents a research paper and cites "Google" in their bibliography instead of the actual site they found and used. Google is a character in all our lives now. It knows the most intimate details of our lives, keeping records of our searches and site visits. It is our assistant in accessing the far reaches of the Internet to gain knowledge unlike anything ever available before. It presents imagery galore at a mouse click for an artist to refer to, and now it actually can create original images, as well. This is amazing, but also really scary. Many articles have been written about the risks artificial intelligence taking over our world as the technology improves. Will it take over the art world, too?
At this point the app focuses on creating "surrealist" art. This would be relatively easy to do content-wise as there is a high level of randomness in the art style. Meaning is hard to identify in many surrealist pieces of art, and the computer generated ones are no exception. Plates of food intertwined with dogs faces and eyeballs and layered random scenery seem to be the way this app "thinks," but could it gain more expressive ability with use? Could it get "smarter?" Time will tell.
One thing I *think* I know is that while a computer can design something and even technologically build it, I don't think it can ever bead a fabric piece by hand and accidentally stab itself in the finger, leaving minute and invisible DNA traces of the artist embedded within the work of art. My suspicion is that there will always be a place for handmade things. Humans need to create, and human minds will never run out of ideas that have great personal meaning. Take that, Google!
What will you make today?