

Algorithm can create new Van Gogh or Picasso in an hour - JohnHammersley
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/08/31/this-algorithm-can-create-a-new-van-gogh-or-picasso-in-just-an-hour/?postshare=9081441069630944

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panic
This article has a clickbait headline and no technical details. Here's the
actual (pre-print) paper on this technique:
[http://arxiv.org/abs/1508.06576](http://arxiv.org/abs/1508.06576)

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sctb
HN discussion of the paper:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10141516](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10141516)

~~~
JohnHammersley
Thanks for both these extra links -- I missed the previous HN discussion (of
the paper) due to searching for Van Gogh / Picasso rather than anything else.

Whilst I agree the Washington Post article is rather lacking in technical
details, it does provide a pretty nice visual idea of what the paper is about,
which I think helps (and this comment thread means people can now find the
paper very easily too!).

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nl
_Of course, the machines don’t have a style all their own. They can only copy
existing styles. True creativity is a greater challenge that machines have yet
to master._

It seems to me that human artists take styles they have seen, blend it with
their experiences and create their own style.

Blending multiple painting styles is just a tweak in the training....

~~~
skimpycompiler
Well, that isn't the only thing. I guess what others might complain about is
the lack of composition, structured use of color, etc.

As much as paintings look similar, generated ones do not have a proper
structure, the applied colors do not match the original intent and are often
misplaced.

One of the obvious flaws is the reflection of the houses in the water, the
painting isn't structured and the system isn't capable of discovering that
kind of structure.

Paper on the other hand shows a very nice method of finding unique filters
from given examples, and the results are amazing.

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lobo_tuerto
Meanwhile, you can play with this:

[https://github.com/Lasagne/Recipes/blob/master/examples/styl...](https://github.com/Lasagne/Recipes/blob/master/examples/styletransfer/Art%20Style%20Transfer.ipynb)

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Xcelerate
What's more interesting than the article are the comments below it. The
average person isn't commenting on what a cool deep learning breakthrough this
is.

If AI is ever _actually_ realized, it will occur along with a fit of
conniptions about how "fake" it is. Well... at least until people fail to pass
a double-blind test distinguishing between human and AI creations.

~~~
vixen99
Yes, we're all fakes to that extent. People who are unconvinced should read
Braitenberg's Vehicles (1984).

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random_user_20
I wonder what the output of the inverse would look like.. If it's fed a
database of "real world" and run on a Van Gogh.

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pedalpete
This Algorithm doesn't create a Van Gogh or a Picasso, but rather merges an
artists style with another. If the algorithm were given two different
photographs, what would the result be?

This is clearly pointed out in the Gandalf example. Though the resulting image
may mimic Picasso's style of line and color, as a whole, it was unable to
recreate the randomness and asymmetry of Picasso's style.

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qCOVET
This was already shared 6 days ago by user midko ..

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10143929](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10143929)

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Steko
I wonder which camera app will implement first.

