Finding the art in artificial intelligence: For $432,500, you can buy a painting created by A.I.

By Staff Reuters

Posted October 29, 2018 4:14 pm EST

Updated October 29, 2018 4:44 pm EST

1 min read

This article is more than 5 years old and some information may not be up to date.

WATCH: A New York auction recently sold an art piece created by artificial intelligence for close to half a million U.S. dollars. – Oct 29, 2018

For the first time ever, art created by artificial intelligence sold for US$432,500 at a New York auction.

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The AI-generated “Portrait of Edmond Belamy” depicts a slightly blurry chubby man in a dark frock-coat and white collar, and his off-centre position leaves enough white space to show the artist’s signature as “min max Ex[log(D(x))] + Ez[log(1-D(G(z)))],” a mathematical algorithm.

Christie’s, the auction house that has sold paintings by Picasso and Monet at record prices, offered the portrait for sale from Oct. 23 to 25. The work was initially estimated to fetch between US$7,000 to US$10,000, according to the auction house.

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Paris-based collective Obvious, founded by Hugo Caselles-Dupré, Pierre Fautrel and Gauthier Vernier, created the portrait.

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Vernier said the portrait aimed to meld traditional art and artificial intelligence.

“Portrait of Edmond de Belamy” was among several portraits produced by AI, all of them arranged in a fictitious Belamy family tree, including Baron de Belamy in a military sash and a countess in pink silks.

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