Obvious

What is art? Academics and culture lovers have debated that question for centuries. Now a group of French artists named Obvious has a new answer: images created by artificial intelligence. Using a set of 15,000 paintings from the 14th to the 19th century, they trained an algorithm to create its own original artwork. “What it produces isn’t a copy or an amalgamation of the data-set. Think of it as the 15,001st image,” says Hugo Caselles-Dupré, one of three 25 year-olds who started Obvious out of their apartment in Paris last year. They listed their first work, a portrait titled Le Comte de Belamy in January for €10,000 (about $11,600) and quickly found a buyer. Famed auction house Christie’s is set to sell a second piece this October. Some critics are already dismissing AI art, but Caselles-Dupré compares it to the dawn of photography in the mid-1800’s. “Back then people said people who took pictures are like machines,” he says. “Now we can all agree that photography has become a real branch of art.” —Ciara Nugent