The AI art boom of 2022 took the world by storm. But where did these powerful generative algorithms come from? AI art has origins going back decades, gradually progressing from lab experiments to creative force. Let’s explore the history of AI art & the best 3 amazing breakthroughs.
Early AI Art Experiments
The roots of AI art stretch back to the 1970s, when artists first began experimenting with computer programs to algorithmically generate images. But more robust AI art emerged in 2014 with generative adversarial networks (GANs).
GANs involve two neural networks competing against each other to generate increasingly realistic synthetic images. Early GAN experiments produced very simple faces and scenes. But subsequent breakthroughs in deep learning and computing power rapidly advanced GAN quality.
By 2016, GANs were generating bedroom and outdoor images resembling photographs. And by 2019, Nvidia presented an eerily convincing GAN face generator. The technology was advancing, albeit still with some flaws.
DALL-E Sparks an Explosion
In 2021, AI research lab OpenAI unveiled DALL-E, a text-to-image generator producing remarkably coherent art from text prompts. DALL-E demonstrated the creative potential of large AI models trained on internet image-text pairs.
OpenAI’s follow-up, DALL-E 2 in 2022, showed even sharper photorealism and imagination. Its diffusion model technology fueled an explosion of new commercial AI art startups looking to capitalize on generative algorithms.
Almost overnight, AI art progressed from an academic curiosity to a phenomenon reshaping the creative landscape.
Democratizing Creativity
Early GAN experiments required advanced AI expertise. But today’s user-friendly AI art platforms like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion make image generation accessible to anyone.
While debates persist around ethics and copyright, these tools undeniably expand creative possibilities. Artists are beginning to incorporate AI in their workflows for fresh inspiration.
The rapid evolution from early GANs to today’s creative firepower shows that AI art is here to stay as both a technology and artistic medium. These generative algorithms point to an intriguing future of human and artificial creativity combining forces. We hope this article has helped you understand the history of AI art & the best 3 amazing breakthroughs.
