Botto, The Decentralized AI/Human Artist, Makes 1st Million

An AI algorithm called Botto has made somewhere around $1.3 million at auction for its first six non-fungible token (NFT) artworks.

Photo Insert: Blossoming Cadaver

Botto generates thousands of images, and a community of humans vote to influence its direction and decide which pieces go to auction, Loz Blain reported for New Atlas last week.

An AI artist, of course, has some serious advantages over its human counterparts. For starters, it can very quickly educate itself on the history of human visual expression by analyzing a massive trove of influences, cataloging, and remembering everything it's ever seen.

Where a human artist might slave away over a hot canvas or drawing tablet for days, even years, the AI can pound out its works in a matter of minutes. Algorithmic art might be derivative, it's true – but then the same can be said about the vast majority of human artists, too.

Indeed, there's an argument to be made that the human brain itself operates as a kind of sticky organic algorithm and that if we could pick apart its workings and understand the "source material" of a human life, it would be possible to predict a person's actions, including creative ones.

What computers can't do is have an opinion on whether their creations will strike a chord in the hearts and minds of human viewers. The Botto project is an attempt to outsource this part of the process, adding human discriminators to the growing artistic talents and efficiency of creative AI engines.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic