To help illustrate our cover story on how the AI arms race is changing the world, we reached out to award-winning AI artist Pindar Van Arman, who uses artificial intelligence to create his art. Van Arman, who built his first "painting robot" 15 years ago, uses deep learning neural networks, artificial intelligence, feedback loops, and computational creativity to guide his newer robots. As a result, the robots end up making a surprising number of independent aesthetic decisions in the course of painting each piece--putting a different spin on the idea of "generative" AI: artificial intelligence that doesn't just compute, but also creates. "My machines have grown beyond being simple assistants and are now effectively augmenting my own creativity, as well as having creativity of their own," says Van Arman. "They have become a generative AI art system so sophisticated that it has forced me to consider the possibility that all art is generative."

Artist Pindar Van Arman has been painting his entire life. But for the last 10 years he's been trying to delegate some of the work. Van Arman's bitPaintr project is a robotic system that paints portraits using customized robotic artificial intelligence. Unlike photo booth computer portraits - which are essentially just printers - the bitPaintr bot uses real brushes, paints and canvas. "It paints using it's own artificial intelligence and my artistic direction," Van Arman says on his intriguing Kickstarter page.

Are robots going to replace artists? A robot with the ability to draw portraits is having its finishing touches added at Cornwall-based robotics company Engineered Arts. SEE ALSO: WILL AI-ART SUPPLANT HUMANS AS THE ARTISTS IF THE FUTURE? Once complete the robot called Ai-Da will use special cameras and a bionic arm to create one-off pieces of art. "She's going to actually be drawing, and we're hoping to then build technology for her to paint," Project leader, British gallery owner Aiden Meller said.

As AI becomes an unstoppable force, it raises some difficult questions about the future role of humans in an increasingly automated world. Initial studies are showing that we can add the most value by focusing on four key areas: critical thinking, problem solving, managing human interactions, and above all else, expressing creativity. In short, our future role involves embracing these last bastions of human exclusivity and becoming more "human." But just last month, AI-generated art arrived on the world auction stage under the auspices of Christie's, proving that artificial intelligence can not only be creative but also produce world class works of art--another profound AI milestone blurring the line between human and machine. Naturally, the news sparked debates about whether the work produced by Paris-based art collective Obvious could really be called art at all. Popular opinion among creatives is that art is a process by which human beings express some idea or emotion, filter it through personal experience and set it against a broader cultural context--suggesting then that what AI generates at the behest of computer scientists is definitely not art, or at all creative.

All artwork in the competition are more than the typical landscapes and photorealistic portraits. "I was telling the teams, if their robot knocks over a can of paint and they think it's beautiful, they should submit it," said Conru. "We have no limit on to what constitutes art." The Carnegie Mellon team have created a bot that works like an invisible coloring book. The robot has a paintbrush that is attached to a robotic arm and guides the human hand to follow the guidelines set in a paint program.