As you read my words now, the text has been constructed with several decisions about the words, tone, and grammar. While it seems straightforward to articulate this message rationally, it is far from pure reason and is in fact a creative and unique process to write. Can you imagine how machines would choose to write to us? If you haven't already seen an AI send text messages, you might imagine a concise and precise use of words that could only mean one thing. Language doesn’t work like that, and...
Aug 13, 2022•25 min•Ep. 17
When AI is only worth as much as the algorithms and data it is based upon, what cultural impacts and criticisms are not afforded to what can be deemed objective data? Though we have looked at AI through the disciplines of philosophy, engineering, and art, the humanities have a lot more to do with this field as we increasingly realise the cultural potential (and indeed impact) of machine learning. Ramon Amaro is perfectly situated to identify issues with AI practice now, as a Lecturer in Visual C...
Sep 17, 2021•44 min•Ep. 16
Would you listen to a story made by a machine? We've discussed how AI can collaborate with humans in art, inspiring some truly great work across mediums. But what happens when creatives take their passion to commercial products, what room is there for AI in commercial innovation? It turns out, a lot! ABF creative is one of the world's first content producers to leverage AI in the creation of podcasts. Anthony Fraiser, ABF Creative CEO, joins the Art Intelligence Agency to discuss the process of ...
Aug 21, 2021•25 min•Ep. 15
It seems that many people would rather use calculators or employ the services of an accountant than practice the language of mathematics, we've got plenty more fun things to be doing than formal equations. But is this boredom surrounding mathematics due to the language, or the subject of equations? Perhaps grammar is to a poem what math is to AI art. Can we code for creative outcomes? Is there a formula for art? It sounds daunting but Marcus Du Sautoy, author of the creativity code, is an Oxford...
Jun 26, 2021•32 min•Ep. 14
The study of art history brings with it questions of identifying and classifying genres, styles, and interpretations, providing an understanding of art at a sophisticated level. With the emergence of AI within artistic spaces, it has drawn contemporary art historians to consider how aesthetics play into the analytical ‘mind' of a machine processing art. With the new aesthetic, and the blending of virtual and real worlds in artistic language, we have a lot of creative potential and we're only sta...
Jun 05, 2021•30 min•Ep. 13
As this series has explored the possibilities of artistic creativity with regard to AI, a common theme arises where AI is unable to self-sufficiently create meaningful work, but with direction from artistic intentions, it can be involved in truly remarkable work. Tim Gruchy is an artist who employs technology for multi-media art in this way. But as Agent Tim Gruchy explores ideas of sensory experiences, questions arise for AI's potential in a complex space, where as far as human experience is co...
May 20, 2021•43 min•Ep. 12
As this series has explored the possibilities of artistic creativity with regard to AI, a common theme arises where AI is unable to self-sufficiently create meaningful work, but with direction from artistic intentions, it can be involved in truly remarkable work. Tim Gruchy is an artist who employs technology for multi-media art in this way. But as Agent Tim Gruchy explores ideas of sensory experiences, questions arise for AI's potential in a complex space, where as far as human experience is co...
May 07, 2021•27 min•Ep. 11
While data is technically valuable to industry and science, it also makes an amazing subject for artistic exploration and expression. Data is a fantastic way of knowing about something but it is a limited experience of the world. That limitation is a great constraint for the creation of art but is also a fantastic motivation to point out through art. Equally, AI is a great tool to collaborate with for art creation, but using machine learning for commercial benefit requires reflection and critiqu...
Apr 24, 2021•24 min•Ep. 10
Digital culture can be separate from tangible culture but the effects and integration of digital culture make it indistinguishable as we progress further into the 21st century. With constraints like video CODECs, or internet bandwidth, it is strange to think that we participate in cultures through digital means and that this represents our achievements and behaviours. We know there are AI digital influencers, and artists have incorporated AI in their art-making process, so AI is already implante...
Apr 16, 2021•31 min•Ep. 9
AI can be seen as entirely separate or different to human intelligence, but if we consider it deeply, it is only made possible by human intelligence. Is AI just an extension of Humans then? Data policy expert and Senior Fellow at the School of Cybernetics, Ellen Broad, is certain that any faults or success behind AI really indicate human success. The influence of Ellen's book “Made by Humans: The AI Condition” made this conversation imperative to any consideration of AI in creative ventures. Ell...
Mar 26, 2021•28 min•Ep. 8
You may know virtual bots like "Siri" or "Alexa", and you may have chatted to a bot to order a pizza, but virtual beings take these foundations to the next level. Even now we imagine personalities for our virtual assistants which amount to lines of code; we give them pronouns and ask them if they love us (just for a joke). But what happens when there is a reality like that depicted in the Hollywood films “Her”, or in "Bladerunner 2049"? Virtual assistants and chatbots have integrated into our li...
Mar 12, 2021•21 min•Ep. 7
So far we've shown some ways in which artists and engineers are using AI in creative ways or in creative processes and it has been a fascinating philosophical journey. In this episode, we bring Agent David Olney (as featured in episode 4) back on the podcast to discuss why AI can be 'boring' and still innovative. High reliability is a quality in contention with creativity in many ways. As a blind academic, David uses AI to get around, assess his surroundings, or even read to him and those proces...
Feb 26, 2021•31 min•Ep. 6
The act of using code or data and giving them aesthetic outcomes is the project of the 21st century, the information age. With all of this information and computing power at our disposal, it doesn't seem like we are far from the kinds of machine learning that can autonomously visually impress us if it were even inclined to produce such things. Dr Mitchell Whitelaw of the Australian National University is sceptical about Artificial intelligence being inclined to produce art autonomously in ways w...
Feb 12, 2021•19 min•Ep. 5
When we look at a painting or gaze upon a movie scene, we gather the visual information on what objects are, why something may be moving, and what that might mean. For a machine, these inputs break down to 1s and 0s to make sense of this information through algorithms and patterns. Visual systems are incredibly complex, and replicating them for those without sight is a significant technological challenge. Agent Saqib Shaikh is a software engineer at Microsoft and project lead of Seeing AI, a mob...
Jan 29, 2021•43 min•Ep. 4
Professor Jon McCormack of Monash University joins the Art Intelligence Agency to discuss the considerations of pairing human creative endeavours with the strict logic of computer technology. Jon's understanding of art and science give him great insight into the relationship humans have with computers. With AI being incorporated into more creative tools and forming the modern zeitgeist, why should humans care? What about these new technologies appeals to creatives and engineers and what is yet t...
Jan 15, 2021•28 min•Ep. 3
Dr Jonathan Opie and Benjamin Lancer join the Art Intelligence Agency to dispense their collective expertise on how machines can resemble organic intelligence. While machines have been able to solve the traveling salesman problem for decades, mould has been able to solve it for millions of years. If humans are capable of imagination and creativity, AI has a long way to catch up with evolved brains. So are machines capable of creativity? And are humans even capable of 'new' thoughts? This episode...
Jan 01, 2021•38 min•Ep. 2
Sam Leach joins the podcast to discuss his artistic work in his latest collection titled Fully Automatic, which featured at Sullivan & Strumpf in Sydney in 2020. Sam excels as an artist by his own merit, but what if we pair him up with some machine learning? Dr Matthew McAuley from Belfast helped Sam implement algorithms from a DCGAN, (Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network) to automate the process of studying aesthetics through time. Sam's previous award-winning work also went in...
Dec 18, 2020•20 min•Ep. 1
