Artist vs. AI Continues at Colours of Ostrava

17 hours ago
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The Artist vs. AI project continues. This time, together with Radek Martínek, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava, we presented it at the Colours of Ostrava festival.

The Artist vs. AI project has been evolving for several years. Following two exhibitions dedicated to this ongoing experiment, we presented its latest findings at the Colours of Ostrava festival. Together, we gave a lecture exploring how artificial intelligence interprets visual art.

I launched the Artist vs. AI project to explore how artificial intelligence interprets my paintings. From the very beginning, I was interested in far more than whether AI could imitate my work. What fascinated me was what it actually recognizes, what it overlooks, and how its way of interpreting an image differs from that of a human observer.

As part of the experiment, artificial intelligence first analyzes my paintings and generates detailed textual descriptions of them. These descriptions then serve as prompts for several different generative AI models, each producing its own interpretation of the original artwork. I then compare the original painting with the generated images, examining what the AI identified correctly, what it interpreted differently, and which layers of meaning it failed to capture altogether.

With each new stage of the project, new questions emerge alongside new insights. While artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly capable of recognizing colours, objects, and even certain artistic influences, it still struggles to grasp symbolism, the relationships between visual elements, emotional content, and the subtle details that often form the very essence of a painting.

One of the most rewarding moments of the project was the audience's response at the Colours of Ostrava festival. After the lecture, I had the opportunity to engage in a long discussion with students and other festival visitors about the future of art, creativity, and the role of artificial intelligence. The programme also included an interview for ČT24, filmed directly at the festival venue.

However, the Artist vs. AI project certainly does not end with this lecture. On the contrary, it continues to evolve, offering new perspectives on the fundamentally different ways in which humans and artificial intelligence interpret images, symbols, and the creative process itself.

If you find this topic interesting, I invite you to visit the page created for both Artist vs. AI exhibitions. There, you'll find more detailed information about the experiment, selected analyses of individual paintings, and some of my reflections on how artificial intelligence interprets visual art.

Below, you can explore one example from the experiment: an original painting alongside several AI-generated interpretations created solely from its textual description.