Today’s Story

A closer look at the first GenAI art to be sold at Auction. In fact, back in 2018, Christie sold this piece ⬆️ for $432,500 (45 times the high estimate)

Created by Paris collective Obvious, the same group that recently created an AI art generator that can read minds using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to visually reconstruct what a person imagines.

This work from 2018 was created by an algorithm that was fed 15,000 portraits from the 14th to 20th centuries.

“The algorithm is composed of two parts” aiming to generate new images that fool the Discriminator (the other half of the program that was designed to test if a work was generated by AI) into thinking they are human-made.

“If you consider the whole process, then what you have is something more like conceptual art than traditional painting’ — Ahmed Elgammal, director of the Art and Artificial Intelligence Lab at Rutgers University”

Headlines

• The Oil and Gas Industry Hops on Generative AI (AFP) - The real world, so to speak, is slowly starting to integrate AI from mining to oil. This less discussed application vertical could see immense productivity gains as a result.

• FTC Chair Lina Khan is Looking at AI (TC) - “We’re really looking across the stack — so from the chips to the cloud, to the models, to the downstream apps”

• French Startup Mistral AI Raises $650 Million (YF) - This is the most recent of a slew of AI deals including xAI’s record $6 billion series B.

• LinkedIn tests AI assistant for Premium (AX) - Their platform is changing, broadly integrating games, etc. to increase engagement but they are a prime first mover being owned by Microsoft. They will be integrating a chatbot into Linkedin in the coming weeks.

Research

A Pivotal Copyright Ruling

• Looming Fights Over Copyright are Set to Shape AI’s Future in 2024: As generative tools continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible, a growing number of copyright disputes are poised to significantly impact the trajectory of AI development.

• The big picture: After a year of lawsuits from creators seeking to protect their works from being absorbed and repackaged by generative AI tools, 2024 could see crucial rulings that alter the progress of AI development.

• “Copyright owners have been lining up to take whacks at generative AI like a giant piñata woven out of their works. 2024 is likely to be the year we find out whether there is money inside,” says James Grimmelmann, professor of digital law at Cornell

AI Creations

Each Day we Highlight Cool Gen AI Art and Projects!

The Next Rembrandt is an AI-generated painting Created by J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam and Microsoft. This work imitates the style and subject matter of the legendary Dutch painter Rembrandt. Made by an algorithm that analyzed Rembrandt’s body of work to create this new piece.

The COAI Podcast