Over the past few months, an increasing number of images and installations produced by artists using artificial intelligence (AI), have sold at major auction houses like Christie’s or Sotheby’s....Show moreOver the past few months, an increasing number of images and installations produced by artists using artificial intelligence (AI), have sold at major auction houses like Christie’s or Sotheby’s. This suggests that the artificial semi-automated production and reproduction of art is becoming part of established and recognized institutional art circuits. What remains less certain though, is the possibility of AI producing art fully autonomously, that is, without the artist’s input. There are currently several AI image-generating robots created with the aim to be as automatic as possible, among which is PIX18, built by the mechanical engineer Hod Lipson. Allegedly, this machine can apply physical pigment on canvas to make consistently diverse paintings with minimal human intervention. It is so skilled with the brushes, that its by-products have become practically indistinguishable from human-made paintings in aesthetic terms. With that in mind, the aim of this thesis will be to take PIX18 as a case study, and investigate the extent to which its depictions can be seen as artistically equivalent to human art. This will be done by comparing a painting called ‘Frightened Girl’ (2016) made by/with the robot, to another painting titled ‘Woman with a Flowered Hat’ (1963) made by the artist Roy Lichtenstein. In that fashion, this thesis will attempt to answer the following question: to what extent can PIX18’s ‘Frightened Girl’ (2016), be seen as artistically equivalent to Lichtenstein’s ‘Woman with a Flowered Hat’ (1963), and what does this say about current conceptions of art and future considerations of AI? Both paintings are reinterpretations of other images, and will be put in dialogue across two fundamental perspectives, those of the agent who made the paintings, and of the viewer who perceived or perceives them. Potentially, the insights reached in this thesis entail a reconsideration of contemporary art as an exclusively human phenomenon, and a reassessment of how far AI has come in the replication of complex human behaviors.Show less