Reading
1 Look at the photo and the title of the text. What do you think it’s going to be about? a How art has influenced developments in artificial intelligence b How artificial intelligence is affecting the art world c The science behind art
2 34 Read the text and choose the best answers. 1 Ai-Da looks like Ada Lovelace … a because Lovelace was a character in a series about humanoids. b to make us think Ai-Da is human. c to honour Lovelace’s contribution to computer science. 2 Critics of the first AI artwork said … a that humans should work more closely with AI robots. b that AI art is a money-making activity that will disappear in time. c that AI art is too expensive and the price will drop in the coming years. 3 Alex Da Kid … a had analysed words and tunes to program Watson. b chose from the words and tunes that Watson had analysed. c chose the most popular themes and tunes of recent years to make his song. 4 Mario Klingemann … a uses a robot that generates content that he has not programmed. b projects interesting faces from the Internet onto a screen. c creates new faces for the AI robot to choose from. 5 The Painting Fool … a creates artworks inspired by images of human emotions. b categorises emotions and creates images on the Internet. c chooses from the images Simon Colton has provided. 3 Match the underlined words in the article with the definitions. 1 get control of
The first realistic Artificial Intelligence (AI) robot artist had her first solo exhibition of paintings and sculptures called Unsecured Futures in Oxford in June 2019. Ai-Da, modelled and named after British computer pioneer Ada Lovelace, uses cameras in her eyes to scan her surroundings and a robotic arm to sketch unique abstract line drawings. The real novelty about Ai-Da is her humanoid appearance, created by the same company that designed the robots in the HBO show Westworld . Some people say that Ai-Da looking human makes it easier for the public to relate to Ai-Da as the artist. It also helps us understand humanity’s relationship with technology. The gallery has made $1.2 million from art made by the android. But is Ai-Da an artist in her own right? Some critics pointed out that researchers had collaborated in writing the code and had guided Ai-Da’s perceptions of the world, but buyers like the surprising and unusual style. There have been other art-making AI robots before her, as well as many experiments with AI art. Portrait of Edmond Belamy was sold for $432,500 in 2018. Many critics said at the time that it was a temporary trend that was more about marketing than art. But computer creativity is not just restricted to painting. AI is also capable of composing music, such as the song Not Easy co-created by Grammy-winning music producer, Alex Da Kid. In an interview, Alex said that Watson, the AI unit, had listened to millions of spoken texts and thousands of songs to provide him with the most popular themes and tunes. AI has also entered the world of poetry. Pablo Gervás, professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, has developed WASP, a software which composes its own verses , inspired by the work of a human poet. In all of the previous works, some kind of human collaboration exists in relationship with AI. However, there are two cases where art is created by AI independently. Memories of Passersby I , by Mario Klingemann, a German artist, projects images of faces distorted by algorithms. The interesting thing is that the faces have never existed! Secondly, Simon Colton, professor at the University of London, has designed The Painting Fool, which classifies millions of Internet images according to emotions, such as joy or panic, and creates digital works. Should we worry about AI robots taking over all art forms? Aaron Hertzmann, professor at the University of Toronto, doesn’t think we should worry. He sees new technology as another tool that artists can use. He believes computer creativity will extend the limits of human imagination – and that could produce a whole new art form. Who’s the artist?
2 the things and place around a person 3 a section of a poem containing a group of related lines 4 pulled out of shape 5 people who judge how good something is 6 a fashion
Critical thinkers 4 According to the text, choose the reason why the writer says the AI artworks in paragraph 4 are different from the others. 1 They are created by humanoid robots. 2 There was very limited human collaboration. 3 The artwork that is produced is completely unique. 4 The final artwork was created without human collaboration.
Unit 8 67
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