Art.ificial

A Turing Test—using visuals rather than text—to explore just how closely AI can come to the human creative process. We commissioned five artists—and Pindar Van Arman’s Cloudpainter—to create a piece of art based on the same dataset, a collection of art by 20th-century American abstract expressionists. These final artworks were presented to an audience, as well as through an online microsite guessing game: “Can You Guess the AI Artwork?” The AI-created painting passed the Turing Test: Only 5% of respondents could pinpoint which piece was AI-produced.

The compelling Turing Test narrative and dynamic visual elements made our Art.ificial project extremely attractive to global media coverage: It was featured in broadcast segments on CNN, YouTube Originals and CNBC, and was written up in Quartz, Scientific American and others.