Ahmed Elgammal, the creator of an art generator and the Director of the Art and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Rutgers University (USA) will take part in the VIII Saint Petersburg International Cultural Forum for the first time. The participants in the discussion Your Awareness Is in the Hands of Algorithms will get acquainted with the experience of creating digital works of art and with a new format of artwork in general.
The main topics of discussion are the impact of algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) on the information environment and the quality of human life. The experts will exchange views on the digital future of media and culture, discuss information bubbles and the possible consequences of autocracy of automated systems.
An innovator and provocateur, Ahmed Elgammal has taught artificial intelligence to creativity by implementing the information on existing artistic styles and aesthetics from 5 centuries into its program. Artificial artist AICAN generates its own innovative images. The first AI exhibitions were held in galleries in Frankfurt, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. Scientists found that 75 percent of the visitors perceived the paintings of the AI as created by man. One of the paintings was sold at an auction for 16 thousand US dollars.
The AICAN program is based on the psychological theory of the evolution of art proposed by Colin Martindale (1943–2008). He argued that each new generation of artists rejects the existing and even successful forms, plots and styles and strives for completely new, unprecedented manifestations. Perhaps this explains the abstract style of AICAN. Indeed, the first author's exhibition of artificial intelligence at the HG Contemporary Gallery in New York entitled Faceless Portraits Transcending Time reflected the metaphysical nature of his art.
Yet Elgammal is more a scientist than a promoter of artificial intelligence. He does not provoke competition between man and artificial intelligence but states that AI can simulate the course of art history, and AICAN created by him should become a companion, a tool that will predict trends and even create examples of new art.
The Mass Communications Section will include 11 events involving over 40 Russian and foreign speakers: government officials, heads of leading domestic and foreign media, bloggers, directors of the country's major theatres, museums and galleries, writers, and artists.
