Portraits in AI

If a computer is creating art, is it still art, or merely a product of algorithms? What if it’s creating portraits of humans in the style created by human artists? What if a human artist were to repaint images created by AI? The questions are many and, at this point, they lead only to more questions.

After some experience with using AI to write, I decided to get a taste of what it can do with images. I started with the usual, asking it to produce pictures of dogs bowling or alter my own images. Then I asked it to create some portraits in the style of well-known artists. Famous living people were outside of the scope, so I went back. 

The first image is supposed to be Nancy Reagan in the Style of the American Ashcan School painter Robert Henri. Such a portrait would not be possible as he died within a few years of her birth. As with most of the portraits I tried, the style is better than the likeness.  

Next, here’s Sammy Davis Jr. in the style of 19th Century society painter John Singer Sargent. If it was an actual painting, if you didn’t know better you might say it looks like Sargent’s work, and in any case, if it were a photograph of a real painting it might be a good painting. I’m not sure I would recognize this as the famous glass-eyed crooner, however. 

To be even more ridiculous, I asked for Ayn Rand in the style of Jean-Michel Basquiat. This is a painting that as far as the timeline goes would have been possible, but probably wouldn’t have been painted nonetheless, but who knows. 

How about Cornelius Vanderbilt in the style of Gilbert Stuart. Again a good painting perhaps, somewhat Stuart-like, but I wouldn’t guess this random figure was the railroad and steamship industrialist.

Finally, here’s what AI thinks a painting of Frida Kahlo by Picasso would look like. Of course!

And because I know you want to see it, here’s the border collie bowling.