AI resurrects lost Picasso nude
Picasso is believed to have reluctantly painted over the work at a time when resources were scarce
The nude portrait of a crouching woman, one of Pablo Picasso's most famous works, has been brought to life by artificial intelligence-powered software trained to paint like the legendary artist.
The recreation of "The Lonesome Crouching Nude," as the long-hidden painting has been dubbed, has drawn global attention and praise while also landed the two students behind the AI project in potential legal trouble, NBC News reported.
Anthony Bourached and George Cann, doctoral researchers at University College London (UCL), utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to revitalize a picture of a naked lady by Pablo Picasso that had been hidden for over a century beneath one of his "blue period" masterpieces.
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They recreated the hidden nude by training AI to replicate Picasso's brushstrokes using an algorithm that allowed it to analyze dozens of his past works.
This has ended up highlighting the challenges posed by efforts to give old art new life using technology.
This dilemma arises with the question of ownership, both legal and cultural, and the ethics of using modern methods to uncover, reproduce or complete works of art long after their original creators are dead.
The original was discovered hidden under Picasso's 1903 masterpiece 'The Blind Man's Meal' after that piece was X-rayed in 2010.
Picasso is believed to have reluctantly painted over the work at a time when resources were scarce.
Using the 2010 X-ray as a starting point, the AI could reproduce a version of the painting, which was given texture and printed onto canvas using three-dimensional printing technology.
Earlier on 13 October, the resurrected piece was set to be unveiled at the Deeep AI Art Fair in London.
But it was called off hours before it was meant to go on display by UK representatives of Picasso's estate, citing the artwork as an "infringement of rights."
"If I'm honest, I think it's a bit sad our innovation has been stifled in this way," George Cann said to the media.
The pair said they hoped to seek resolution with Picasso's estate on the matter.
"Disclosing a work by Picasso is a matter of copyright and, in particular moral rights. It is a timeless right, which belongs only to the heirs of the author," said Claudia Andrieu, the head of legal affairs for Picasso's estate.
"Moreover, this Artificial Intelligence that 'learned' to paint 'like Picasso' will never have the sensitivity of a painter whose creativity is expressed in front of each blank canvas," Andrieu added.
"The 'result' of this Artificial Intelligence is not a work, and it is indecency to say otherwise," she said.
"A machine cannot replace an artist, nor complete the work of an artist who has abandoned it on the way of its creation."
In response, Bourached said the estate's claim was "mistaken on points of law, ethics, philosophy, machine learning and art."
"The right to imaginative reinterpretation — intuitive or machine-assisted — is not for Succession Picasso or anyone else to deny," he said in a statement.
In a separate statement, Cann added that the pair had "not claimed to have recreated an actual work by Pablo Picasso," but a "possible reconstruction of the piece hidden beneath Picasso's 1903 The Blind Man's Meal."
