The Next Picasso Is a Robot

Roboticist Patrick Tresset created a robot that autonomously draws an interpretation of what it "sees" via a camera. Tresset created his first artistic robot, Paul, during a bad case of artist's block, and has been upgrading the model ever since. Paul IX uses facial recognition technology to accurately represent a subject's features, but Paul's paintings aren't perfect replicas of the models--they reflect interpretation, artistic liberty, and, dare I say, personality. Tresset hopes to demonstrate that robots can autonomously create art that "comments on the human condition." Perhaps great artists are both made and born?