The WOW Report

  • WOW Report
  • About
  • RuPaul’s Drag Race Live!
  • WOW Presents Plus
  • What to Watch
  • Store
You are here: Home / Culture / Art / Is This How Machines See Us? Robbie Barrat’s AI-Generated Nude Paintings Are Seriously Creepy

Is This How Machines See Us? Robbie Barrat’s AI-Generated Nude Paintings Are Seriously Creepy

By James St. James on April 2, 2018 11:35 am

#TheComingRobotRevolution

I’ve had a creeping sense of dread ever since i saw this article about Robbie Barrat‘s computer-generate art over the weekend.

via VICE:

Barrat, a recent high school graduate in West Virginia, made the images by feeding thousands of classical nude paintings scraped from WikiArt into a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). The GAN uses a system of two neural networks called a “generator” and a “discriminator” to create convincing versions of the works using data from the paintings and machine learning.

When he previously tested this technique with landscape oil paintings, Barrat says the GAN was able to produce fairly convincing compositions with some surreal accents. In the nude portrait experiment, however, the neural network refused to move past its Dalí period.

“The GAN didn’t successfully learn how to make realistic nude portraits,” the 18-year-old Barrat told me via email. “The discriminator part of the GAN isn’t really able to tell the difference between blobs of flesh and humans, and once the generator realized it could keep feeding the discriminator blobs of flesh, and fool it this way, both networks just stopped learning how to paint more realistically.”

Sats Robbie:

Usually the machine just paints people as blobs of flesh with tendrils and limbs randomly growing out – I think it’s really surreal. I wonder if that’s how machines see us…

via CNET:

Barrat posted many of the final pieces of artwork — which can only be described as surreal, blobby, swirly naked women — on Twitter. It’s almost like a very intoxicated Salvador Dali and a dizzy Picasso joined forces to make art. …Barrat’s AI-assisted artwork isn’t exactly sensual. In fact, most of the nudes look like they are melting on a very hot day.

“The way that it paints faces makes me uncomfortable. It always paints them as like, purple and yellow globs — that isn’t in the training set so I’m actually still not sure why it does that.

Check out the deeply unsettling results below. (via boingboing)

Dreaming about the latent space of flesh 💭🥩 pic.twitter.com/xWCS5Op5ls

— Robbie Barrat (@DrBeef_) April 1, 2018

Show the love:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Art, Featured, News, Science & Tech, Social Media, TV & Video, Web, WTF

More

Here’s the Legendary Origin of the Creative Partnership with RuPaul and World of Wonder

Here’s the Legendary Origin of the Creative Partnership with RuPaul and World of Wonder

by Andrea James on May 25, 2022 3:26 pm

#QWERRRKOUT Tuesday: “A Genderfluid Artist that Loves to do Crazy Cosplays, Horror Looks”- Mio Hikaru (NSFW)

#QWERRRKOUT Tuesday: “A Genderfluid Artist that Loves to do Crazy Cosplays, Horror Looks”- Mio Hikaru (NSFW)

by Paisley Dalton on May 24, 2022 11:07 am

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Trending


#ArtDept: The Male Nudes of English Painter, Brian Hatton

#SNL: Public Service Announcement – “I’m Stupid…” Watch

#RealEstatePorn: Amy Schumer Is Selling Her NYC “Fancy Rich Person’s Apartment” (For $15 Million!)

‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ Season 7 Premieres Tomorrow

#ConDRAGulations! Chloë Sevigny Married Her Husband (Again?) & Didn’t Wear Just One Dress (She Wore 3!)

About

From the creators of The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Party Monster, Million Dollar Listing, RuPaul's Drag Race, I Am Britney Jean, Big Freedia, and more.

View My Blog Posts
Beanie Feldstein! Jean Smart! Hannah Einbinder! Richard Ayoade! The WOW Report for Radio Andy!
Sarah Jessica Parker & Matthew Broderick! Regine! Jennifer Grey! The WOW Report for Radio Andy!
Nicolas Cage! Elon Musk! Paris Hilton! Margaret Mitchell! Charo Joins for the WOW Report for Radio Andy!
Michelle Obama! Devo! Betty Ford! Kardashians! Drag Race Finale! The WOW Report for Radio Andy!
Kim K! Billie Eilish! Molly Shannon! Laurie Anderson! The WOW Report for Radio Andy!

© 2021 World of Wonder Productions, Inc | World of Wonder is a trademark of World of Wonder Productions, Inc | Privacy

Copyright © 2022 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in