{"668485":{"#nid":"668485","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Exploring Art and AI in Georgia Tech\u0027s School of Literature, Media, and Communication","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPainting may seem old school, but it\u2019s a profoundly technological practice. From the tech behind brushes to the mathematics of perspective, artists of all kinds have long placed themselves where science, technology, and art meet.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBut it\u2019s never been more challenging to pinpoint where a relentless ocean of technology splashes over the ever-shifting sands of artistic expression amid the rise in artificial intelligence tools such as DALL-E and ChatGPT capable of generating images, text, and even music from relatively simple text prompts.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis landscape has proven fertile ground for School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC) resident painter Mark Leibert, who for years has turned to algorithms and computational methods to help inspire and refine his work.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ELeibert and collaborators from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) have gone even further, recruiting a team of student researchers in the Art \u0026amp; AI Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) to explore the artistic implications of AI and the technological implications of art. In fact, they were well ahead of the recent public buzz over artificial intelligence tools, having launched four years ago \u2014 before DALL-E and ChatGPT became household names.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe have a really unique situation here where we can think about how these techniques can be used for artistic means and how to use those creative neurons to approach some of these new technologies,\u201d said Leibert, an LMC professor of the practice.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EArt and Computation Central to LMC\u2019s Mission\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Art \u0026amp; AI VIP is one of many arts-and-technology efforts housed entirely or partly in LMC, a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. The most recent initiative is Interactive Media Arts, a partnership between the Ivan Allen College and the Georgia Tech Library, that features many LMC faculty.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EOther projects include Professor Brian Magerko\u2019s widely acclaimed EarSketch coding-through-music platform; work examining the shared DNA behind quilting and computing spearheaded by Anne Sullivan, an LMC assistant professor whose doctorate is in computer science, and Professor Janet Murray\u2019s continued exploration of the impact of digital technology on storytelling. The School also recently added a new artist-in- residency program, in collaboration with the GT library, to further examine the nexus of art and tech. It also has invited musicians to a residency program with similar aims, that one in conjunction with the School of Music.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cLMC has always been about looking at how technology is shaping literature, art, and storytelling in general,\u201d said Kelly Ritter, chair of the School. \u201cThe Art and AI VIP is one way we\u2019re doing this, but whether it be a new center dedicated to exploring the nexus between media arts and research, the extraordinary work of faculty such as Brian Magerko and his team, who are helping teach young students to code, or how technology and its impact is suffused throughout our writing and communication program, this sense of interplay between technology, textual study, and media arts is central to what we do.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAI: \u2018Solutions in Search of a Problem\u2019\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EDALL-E\u2019s AI-generated take on Leibert leading a class.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe VIP draws students from across campus, many interested in exploring the creative potential of technological degrees or in scratching a creative itch they aren\u2019t always able to satisfy amid a heavy courseload in computing or engineering.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTech has great resources for technology and amazing resources for literature, media, and communication. This seemed like one of the few bastions in which the two were really intermingling,\u201d said Jude McClaren, a second-year computational media student.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ELeibert formed the VIP team in 2020, initially partnering with now-retired GTRI researcher Betty Whitaker. He\u2019s now working with Ethan Trewhitt, another GTRI researcher, who helps students dig deeper into the sometimes mystifying ways in which AI and artistic intent interact.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAI systems, in some cases, are solutions looking for a problem, and giving them new outlets helps you recognize where the limitations of those systems are,\u201d said Trewhitt, a senior research engineer at GTRI. \u201cThen the creative motivations of the people using these systems can create new ways to solve problems that can then be used toward what you would consider more practical applications that aren\u2019t necessarily art. So it\u2019s kind of a feedback loop.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EExploring the Intersection of Art and AI\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn its four years, students in the Art and AI VIP have explored the intersection of the two fields through various projects. In recent years, students have tried using AI to write horror, create moving portraits, animate children\u2019s books, explore new takes on old music, creative interactive, emotion-sensing art, and tools to visualize poetry and music.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn the Spring 2023 semester, an interdisciplinary group of students with experience in coding, illustration, 3D-modeling, computer animation, website design, marketing, and AI systems worked on creating a human-like extension to the ChatGPT AI tool.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EYou can see a gallery of some of the recent work they have done in a\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/airtable.com\/apphzRpDsb2c0SOSZ\/tblizj2t853IpllKy\/viw66yZ649Mvb55DM?blocks=hide\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Edatabase\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;maintained by the Art \u0026amp; AI VIP.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETheir techniques include generative adversarial networks, diffusion models, transformer models, and natural language processing models, as seen in publicly available tools such as\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/openai.com\/dall-e-2\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EDALL-E\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ebsynth.com\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EEbSynth\u003C\/a\u003E, and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/chat.openai.com\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EChatGPT\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI would say the bulk of the students are working in the deep-learning space, which tends to be a little more black-box kind of functionality,\u201d Trewhitt said. \u201cThe fun thing about this is there really isn\u2019t such a thing as failure, so it\u2019s safe to really play with things that can surprise you.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile Trewhitt is still working through ways to dive deep into the technology behind such systems in a way that works for a team with a range of backgrounds, some more technical than others, some teams have surpassed his knowledge in some areas.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe had students working on a music video project recently, and by the end of the semester, they definitely understood it better than I did. I had dabbled in it, but they had spent hours really getting it working the way they wanted, peeling back the layers of a complex system to get it to do what they wanted it to do.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMichelle Lee, an Art \u0026amp; AI VIP member and second-year computer science student from New York, is working on a music visualization program. She said the VIP has allowed her to use her computing knowledge in a creative way that she hopes will help after graduation.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI hope to bring creativity wherever I go,\u201d Lee said. \u201cI hope to work at a tech company, and I\u2019d really like to bring this kind of creativity to make my work different and unique.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThinking About the Ethics of AI and Art\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETools such as DALL-E and ChatGPT have made headlines in recent months. The coverage ranges from astonishment at the tools\u2019 ability to render true-to-form, if sometimes absurd, images or text to outright alarm at the potential the tools have to deceive or perhaps even put artists and other creatives out of work.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s a topic of discussion in class, of course. Leibert, Trewhitt, and the students have discussed how emergent technologies, such as the AI tools used in class, can scramble methodologies, disciplines, and careers. They\u2019ve also discussed how working with art creates opportunities to be nimble, reframe conventional thinking, and surface novel ways to solve problems. Leibert says that can, in turn, lead to the creation of new tools or even new careers. Case in point: the rising demand for people skilled in \u201cprompt engineering\u201d \u2014 in other words, able to coax quality results from a tool that can sometimes be mysterious and even erratic.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThat kind of work is something creative people have done for a long time, Leibert said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cArtists and writers have worked with generative prompts and games for much of the last 100 years,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes it has been the flip of a coin, consulting I Ching, or selecting from a deck of prompt cards. Tools like Photoshop and Illustrator have been a part of my process for at least two decades, and working with this group has increased my appreciation for the work computer scientists do.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EEthical issues also come up, of course, such as who is doing the creating \u2014 the human, the machine, or some mixture of the two \u2014 and who can claim ownership over the resulting works.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis is a very new and fast-moving field, so we spend a lot of time talking about the technologies and the creative and conceptual potential of AI in art. But the nice thing about what we are doing is that we are able to have these conversations about ethics in an informal manner as we work, so this kind of ethical thinking becomes as much a part of what we do as the technical inputs or the artistic outputs.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EStudents in the VIP are well aware of the ethical issues and committed to using AI for good. And many view the use of AI to make or remix art as natural, just another tool in an artists\u2019 toolkit.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAI is a legitimate way of making art,\u201d said Marin Hyatt, a third-year computer science student from New York. \u201cI think, like anything else, AI is just a tool, similar to Photoshop. It\u2019s just a different way to make art.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhere does technology end and art begin? The question is central to the students and faculty involved in the Art and AI Vertically Integrated Project (VIP), led by faculty from the School of Literature, Media, and Communication and the Georgia Tech Research Institute. The team, which predates AI tools such as DALL-E and ChatGPT becoming mainstream, seeks to understand how such technologies can be applied for artistic ends, and how artistic creativity can inform technological advancement.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The Art and AI VIP explores the interplay between artistry and artificial intelligence."}],"uid":"35797","created_gmt":"2023-07-14 17:25:41","changed_gmt":"2023-07-14 17:25:41","author":"Siobhan Rodriguez","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2023-07-14T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2023-07-14T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"},{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"},{"id":"71901","name":"Society and Culture"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMichael Pearson\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["michael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}