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AI Technology

Robots that Paint Have Gotten Pretty Impressive (technologyreview.com) 57

An anonymous reader shares a report: Of the 100 images submitted to the 2018 Robotart competition, an automaton called CloudPainter rose to the top, with evocative portraits featuring varying degrees of abstraction. One of its winning images was created by a team of neural networks, AI algorithms, and robots. Robotart's founder, Andrew Conru, told MIT Technology Review that this year's entries have shown refined brushstrokes and composition. "CloudPainter, the winner this year, has been involved all three years and has made the most improvement in his system," he says. "The resulting work, while it still uses an inputted photo as reference, can execute paintings using different painting styles."
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Robots that Paint Have Gotten Pretty Impressive

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  • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Tuesday July 17, 2018 @12:28PM (#56963248) Journal

    I was hoping it was a robot that could paint my porch. Turns out that it's a robot that can make bad art.

    • by swb ( 14022 )

      Was also hoping for a Roomba with a paintbrush.

      • Instead of trying to 'technologize & monetize' everything under the sun, Silicon Valley should focus on the one thing we as a society clearly need: hovering drink holders.
        • That's not hard to build.

          I'm willing to build you a custom one for cost + 20%.

          Please be advised that the price is directly related to the area about which the drink holder can hover; the cheapest option hovers in a fixed position over a pedestal, and only costs 4 figures.

          I can splatter some paint on it for free in an artistic way, but don't expect a Jackson Pollock.

      • That's called a Turtle and you can still play with it! [transum.org]
      • I work for a corrosion coatings company. Believe me, it's in the works.You might even say it's coming down the pipe.
    • Compare art by painter 1 [wikipedia.org] with some by painter 2 [wikipedia.org]. Unless you take some strong drugs, there's no question which of them is better -- the other can be beaten by some bright kindergarten kids, some of their contemporaries get beaten by a chimp [wikipedia.org], yet get exhibited in major galleries for taxpayers' (ie, ours) money.

      Just think: how many millions would Picasso kill if he didn't get admitted to the art school?

      • If you take away the photograph that they're supposed to mimic, then the chimp wins every time.

      • For one thing his eye for color was atrocious [wikipedia.org]
        • For one thing his eye for color was atrocious

          Well, yes. But just take a look at the other guy...

          Both are worse than a typical DeviantArt amateur. But only one has his paintings sold for millions. Picasso and his followers were masters of an art, though: the art of milking sponsors and taxpayers-paid organizations. Then you had masterpieces of that art such as selling a broken bicycle wheel, a picture filled with a single color, or an unmade bed.

          Hitler's paintings were not top-level art, but at least deserve to be called "art". On the other hand,

          • Picasso could do realism. Here is one from when he was a teenager [pablo-ruiz-picasso.net]. That might not be your thing, but if you do want to understand Picasso, a way to start is by examining the lines. See what is in there. That will lead to more understanding.

            Hitler's painting is realism, but he hasn't surpassed the level of Bob Ross, he uses a combination of colors, as if it had been assigned to him, without awareness of whether those colors would be appropriate or not. He doesn't have any understanding of the emotional
    • Yeah, but that robot is going to put a lot of people producing shitty modern art out of work. Maybe they can paint your porch.
      • Yeah, but that robot is going to put a lot of people producing shitty modern art out of work.

        Hey, everybody's gotta eat. If someone can get people to pay them money to produce shitty modern art, what's the harm?

      • If they were willing to show up sober and on time every morning, they could already be doing work.

        Wait, you thought those shitty artists are getting paid?!?!? LMFAO

      • Yeah, but that robot is going to put a lot of people producing shitty modern art out of work. Maybe they can paint your porch.

        Hence, I predict that "robo-tard" (as opposed to the spelling in the article) will be come a word soon after.

  • Wasn't that Pris' pre-release codename?
  • by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Tuesday July 17, 2018 @01:01PM (#56963412)

    CloudPainter painted the worst clouds I've ever seen! ;)

  • by religionofpeas ( 4511805 ) on Tuesday July 17, 2018 @01:04PM (#56963438)

    Instead of all the modern artsy-fartsy stuff, let's see a robot paint a decent classical portrait.

  • I read that as "robo-tart", and immediately thought, "Yeah, sexbots should be getting pretty impressive by now!"
  • https://ericjoyner.com/works/recaptcha/

    And do they paint donuts?

  • No wonder they can do it. The lowest rung of art production.

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