In 2021, a painting fetched over $430,000 at a prestigious Christies auction. Depicting a portly gentleman in a black frock coat, the work was executed in a strikingly realistic style. What made “Edmond de Belamy” unique, however, was its creator. The artist was not a human, but an artificial intelligence algorithm named GAN. In the world of fine art, AI had thrown down the gauntlet to its flesh-and-blood competitors.
Of course, mimicking creative human output is nothing new for AI. Computer generated novels, symphonies, even culinary recipes have all emerged from silicon minds. But lately, a new frontier of machine-made content has been making waves – articles, blog posts, social media copy and other written media.