ByMASI
[email protected]
A
taspecialexhibition in
aglitzy hall inBeijing,
the painter presentsall
the possibilities ofwhat
shecanachieve—from the style of
Dutchartist RembrandtvanRijnto
Japanese genre Ukiyo-e.Andmore
importantly,this painter isanartifi-
cial intelligencerobot.
Xiaoice—pronouncedShao-Ice—
theAI botdevelopedbytechgiant
Microsoft,drew more than 100 pic-
tures.And, after learningfrom 236
paintersfrom the past 400 years in
22 months,Xiaoicecannowdraw
“entirely original”imagesclose to the
level ofthe originalartists,andall
the paintingsare“inspired” by noth-
ing more thantext,Microsoftsaid.
You type it,Xiaoicedraws it.
Xia oice’scapabilities highlight how
rapidlyAIisadvancing.Andthe
painting exhibition is just part of
globaltechcompanies’ efforts to
prove thatAInowcan movebeyond
mechanical,repetitive work to
march into theart industry,which
demands original thoughtandhas
longbeen viewedas something
unique to humans.
“Xiaoi s pce’ aintingsarecreated
when she is ‘inspired’. T heyarecom-
pletely independentandoriginal
new works,andnotadjustments or
style migrationfrom what humans
havealreadypainted,”saidXuYuan-
chun,generalmanager oftheAI
creationdepartmentatMicrosoft’s
SearchTechnologyCenter inAsia.
Accordingto him,Xiaoicehas
millions ofdifferent reactions toa
sourceofinspiration just likeaper-
son. When users typeaword,Xiaoice
coulddrawvastlydiverging pictures
in response to that word.
“Wedon’t know what surprises
Xiaoice willbring us,andthe unpre-
dictability is thecharm thatattracts
us,”Xu said.
This is not thefirst time that
Xiaoicehascreatedsomething.
Xiaoicebeganasachatting robot in
2014 andhasalreadybeen“talking”
withmorethan 100 million users,
publishedtwocollections ofpoetry
andreleasedandcomposeddozens
ofsongs.
All these endeavors have helped
accumulate more than5millionfol-
lowers onaChinese microblog,as
Microsoftcontinuesto experiment
with howAI can use emotional intel-
ligence to serveasacompanionfor
people,andhowAI canbe usedto
imbue machines with“creativity”.
Elsewhere in the world,research-
ersandindustry participantsare
also experimenting withAI.In2017,
US singer Taryn Southern unveiled
BreakingFree ,asongcomposedand
producedbyanAIsystemdevelopedbyUSstartupAmper Music.
Last year, Portraitof Edmond
Belamy became the first-ever origi-
nalAI-generatedartworktogoto
auction. The piece,createdbyFrench
AI company Obvious usingcomput-
eralgorithms,soldfor more than
$430, 000 atChristie’s NewYork.
Just like Xiaoice’s paintings,such
AI-generatedwork isbasedon
machine-learningmodels ofartificial
neural networks that resemble the
humanbrainandnervous system,
whichcanstudy input materialsand
produce output in their own right.
When itcomes toAIpainting,
aneural network thatgoesbythe
acronymGANplaysakey role.GAN,
whichstandsfor generativeadver-
sarial network,crea testhe image,
pixelby pixel. Likeany otherartist
ordesigner,it producesbothbroad
strokesandfinedetailsinlayers.
Butas pioneeringAI-generated
worksappeararoundthe world,techcompaniesandartcriticsarealso
addressing thefundamental ques-
tion ofwhether the images,poems
or songs producedby their networks
canbecalledartatall.
QiuZhijie,anartistandprofessor
atChina’sCentralAcademy ofFine
Arts,saidtheanswerdependson
how originality inart isdefinedwhen
machinesare involvedincreation.
“When nobodycan tell thedifference
between paintings generatedbyAI
andthose ofhumans,then wecan
regardAI’s workas original,”Qiusaid.
Apparently,Xiaoicehasalready
passedthe test.InMay,works pro-
ducedby thedrawingbot under the
name XiaoYubing were submitted
to the exhibition ofpostgraduates’
workatChina’sCentralAcademy of
FineArts.
When XiaoY ubing’s paintings
were presentedbeside those of
humans,nobodyrealizedthey were
generatedbyAI.“Art is quitedifferentfrom indus-
trial products.Audiencefeedback
andpersonalfeelings matteralot.
As longas peoplefeelconnectedto
or inspiredbyapainting,then we
cancall itawork ofart,”saidXufrom
Microsoft.
Accordingto Qiu,who hasbeen
workingclosely with Microsoftstudy-
ingAI creation,Xiaoicehasmade
strides in recent monthsandnow
hasastable level ofdrawing quality.
“The first timeIsawherpaintings
(inJanuary),Ionly pickedthree to
fourfrom her 20 picturesas impres-
sive.But in May,the numberwent
up to 12 out of20. NowIcouldpick
asmanyas eight out of10 picturesas
fantastic,”Qiu said.
At theBeijing exhibition,Xiaoice
wassetintosixcharacters ofwom-
enartists,representing six painting
styles.Fast-learningcapabilities
allow thedrawingbot to quickly
master the subtledifferences of
how toapproach the worldfrom six
divergingperspectives.
Basedon Xiaoice’s impressive
drawingcapabilities,Microsoftis
also exploring howAI couldrevolu-
tionize thedesign industry.
Xiaoice is nowcreatingfabric
designsfor internationalfashion
andgarment producers. These lat-
est works havebeen producedin
partnership with theChinaTextile
InformationCenterandtheChina
TextilesDevelopmentCenter.
“Itisexciting to know thatXiaoice
candevelop immaculatedesignsfor
the production of fabricsorready-
to-wearcollections,”saidLiBinhong,
president oftheCTDC.
ScarvesdesignedbyXiaoiceand
clothingbrandSelectedare now
availablefor sa through the lle atter’s
350 outlets inChina.Morecoopera-
tion ondesign willbe unveiledsoon,
saidXufrom Microsoft.Microsoft’sXiaoicechallengesexistingideasofcreativity,highlightshowrapidlyAIisadvancing
Tech takesartworldbystorm
ByMASI
Aspaintingscreatedbyartifi-
cial intelligence pop uparoundthe
worldandarebeing increasingly rec-
ognizedasart,afundamental ques-
tion emerges:Who is theauthor of
theseartworks?
WhenAI-generatedpainting
Portraitof Edmond Belamy was
auctionedatChristie’s NewYork
last year,theartist’s signature was
analgebraicformuladefiningthe
algorithm thatdrew the painting,
which seems to imply that thealgo-
rithm is the trueauthor.
But in the eyes ofQiuZhijie,anart-
istandprofessoratChina’sCentral
Academy ofFineArts,threecontrib-
utors shouldbe givencredit—theAI
model,thecompany thatdevelops
it,andthose involvedin identifying
whatareexcellent paintings.
“Take Xiaoice’s paintingsfor exam-
ple. Microsoftdevelopedthecom-
puteralgorithm that powers Xiaoice.
We identifiedtheaestheticstandards
for theAI drawingbot. Xiaoicealso
playedabig part increating the pic-
tures. The three partiesareall theauthors,”Qiu said.
From alegalperspective,Microsoft
is theauthor ofXiaoice’s paintings
because Microsoftdevelopedthe
platform.But Xiaoicecreatedall the
picturesby herself,thus triggeringa
complicatedsituation,which needs
tobe thoroughlydiscussed,saidXu
Yuanchun,generalmanager oftheAI
creationdepartmentatMicrosoft’s
SearchTechnologyCenter inAsia.
Inthefuture,the signatureand
copyright maybeseparatedand
not ownedbythesame party,Xu
said.Herecalledthat when Xiaoice’sfirst poetrycollection waspublished
in 2017,China’s regulator madean
exceptionbyallowingXiaoice,not
Microsoft,toberecordedasthe
author ofthecollection.
“Similarly,theartist’s signatureat
thebottom ofthe paintings is thatof
Xiaoice,not Microsoft,because we
never toldtheAI bot how todraw
the pictures,it producedall thebroad
strokesandfine detailsitself,”Xu said.
According to him,rapidtechnolog-
icaladvancements will trigger new
discussionsabout legal issues that
the publichas long takenfor granted.Butanalysts generallyagreedthat
authorship isan open question.If
theartist is the one thatcreates
the image,then that wouldbethe
machine.But ifthea tist is the oner
thatholds the visionandwants to
share the message,then that would
stillbe humans.
HuChangqiong,apainterat the
ChineseAcademy ofOil Painting,
said: “There is no needto rush to
define whatAIpaintingsareandto
resist suchartwork.Itisan irrevers-
ible trend.Itwillbeexciting to see
how this revolution plays out.”Techadvancementsintheartmarkettriggernewdiscussionsfromalegalstandpoint
AI-createdworksraiseauthorshipissues
Paintings by Xiaoice, anAIrobot developed by Microsoft, are displayed inBeijing onJuly 1 3.
CHENGGONG/FORCHINADAILY14 BUSINESS August 9 - 15 , 2019 CHINA DAILY GLOBALWEEKLY