You've probably heard that automation is becoming commonplace in more and more fields of human endeavor. You may also have heard that the last bastions of human exclusivity will probably be creativity and artistic judgment. Robots will be washing our windows long before they start creating masterpieces. Right?
I visited Rutgers University's Art and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where Ahmed Elgammal's team has created artificial-intelligence software that generates beautiful, original paintings.
I found these examples of robotically generated art to be polished and appealing. But something kept nagging at me: What happens in a world where effort and scarcity are no longer part of the definition of art?
A mass-produced print of the Mona Lisa is worth less than the actual Leonardo painting. Why? Scarcity—there's only one of the original. But Elgammal's AI painter can spew out thousands of original works of art with every tap of the enter key. This puts us in a weird hybrid world where works of art are unique—every painting is different—but require almost zero human effort to produce.