New Google Project Aims to Put the AI in "Artist"

Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam," processed through Google DeepDream (image via Kyle McDonald/Flickr) Can artificial intelligence create art? In recent years, we've seen plenty of attempts to answer this question, from portrait-painting robots to Aaron, a computer program that makes neon abstractions. Now, Google is launching Magenta, an effort to generate original music, video, images, and text using machine intelligence. Part of Google Brain, the company's deep learning research project, Magenta will explore whether artificial intelligence can create art. "There's a couple of things that got me wanting to form Magenta, and one of them was seeing the completely, frankly, astonishing improvements in the state of the art. And I wanted to demystify this a little bit," Google researcher Douglas Eck said during a panel at MoogFest, a technology and music festival.