AI is their paintbrush, but the artwork is no less human

Algorithmic art has been around as a distinct discipline for decades. Hungarian artist Vera Molnár created an early form of it back in the 1960s with computer drawings fashioned according to strict algorithmic rules. And American artist Roman Verostko created algorithmic art with The Magic Hand of Chance, non-repeating digital drawings created using BASIC on a first-generation IBM PC. But in a new exhibition called Gradient Descent--now on view at Nature Morte gallery in New Delhi--a group of curators, a gallerist, and seven artists are attempting to define, both aesthetically and conceptually, a more recent development in algorithmic creativity: art made by artificial intelligence. The brainchild of brothers Raghava KK and Karthik Kalyanaraman, alongside Nature Morte co-director Aparajita Jain, Gradient Descent features artworks made by seven international artists in collaboration with AI.