Like everyone during the pandemic, I was stuck inside four walls. Needing to expend my energy and distract my mind from all the negative and depressing news about divisive politics, the spread of COVID, and the general deterioration of human society, I started exploring new AI algorithms such as generative adversarial networks (GANs) to create art. These algorithms take two inputs -- the first is a base image, which is typically your photograph, while the second is a style seed image, typically of a well-known work of art such as Van Gogh's The Starry Night. The algorithm then iterates to change your photo and style it like Van Gogh's work. The results are mostly kitschy yet good for amusement.

Art has always transcended eons of human existence. We can see its traces from pre-historic time as the Harappan art in the Indus Valley Civilization to the contemporary art in modern times. Mostly, art has been a means to express one's creativity, viewpoints of how we perceive the world. "Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt". What we sometimes forget that most of the art follows a pattern.

I remember the day, early in the SAILORS program last year, on which we all received these awesome SAILORS t-shirts. On the front, the SAILORS motto was written: "AI will change the world. Who will change AI?" At that moment, I felt excited, just like all the other girls, to wear my new t-shirt, but I don't think I fully understood the meaning of that catchy mantra until after the program. The motto meant so much more to me once I gained an understanding of the enormous implications of AI technology and of my potential to contribute to AI's revolutionary impact on society. At SAILORS, through the varied research project topics, daily lectures by AI professors in fields ranging from computational genomics to aeronautics to computational sustainability, and demos of cutting-edge technology such as haptics and self-driving cars, I realized how amazingly diverse AI's applications are and how creativity plays an essential role in spurring technological innovation.