A portrait generated by a Machine Learning Algorithm has been sold at the Christie’s auction house for $432,000.
Titled Edmond De Belamy, the portrait was created by Obvious, a Paris-based collective comprised of artists and researchers seeking to explore the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning through artwork.
With 15000 portraits from the 14th and 20th century fed into the algorithm called Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), a new image is created by mimicking characteristics of images from the data set. The image is then submitted to a discriminator that spot the difference between a human-made image and one created by the algorithm. This process is continued until the discriminator is fooled into believing that the algorithm generated image is deemed a real human-made portrait.
The portrait is considered to be the very first artwork made by an algorithm to be sold at an auction house.
Part of a collection called Belamy Family, 11 portraits of a fictional family were generated, printed on a canvas with inkjet, and framed in a gold wooden frame.
The algorithm’s core component is defined by an algebraic formula, seen on the bottom right-hand corner of the portrait.
To learn more about Obvious, click the link below.
