Most of us have a music, movie or video-game library – possibly all three – but few have an art collection or even know what their favourite works of art are. Next year, that will change as art moves from the inaccessible to the everyday, thanks to AI.
Art hasn’t felt accessible to many for a long time. Our main experience of it involves visiting galleries and museums or feeling out our depth in art history classes. At a gallery, we spend a couple of hours looking at a lot of seemingly important pieces, but then we leave and the artworks stay where they are. They don’t draw us in, like a favourite album, movie or video game, and we know we can’t afford to take them home with us. They live and die in a physical space.
In 2022, AI will enable everyone to have an art collection of their own by matching their taste in art with further recommendations. Everyone has a particular style of art they like – it’s as unique as a fingerprint. And it doesn’t require specialist training. Anyone can listen to a Beatles song and decide within seconds if they like it. Similarly, most people might claim they don’t know much about art, but show them an artwork and they’ll respond – positively, negatively or neutrally. By understanding each user’s unique taste in art, AI is able to recommend new works for them to add to their library.
The starting point, as with all AI, is a huge collection of data points that reflect what people think when they like, dislike or are simply left cold by a painting, sculpture or image. While services such as Pinterest and Instagram can help you discover art based on your browsing history, it will also be diluted by adverts and non-art images. KULTURA, created by StikiPixels, my own company, is the only dedicated AI art discovery platform at the time of writing. It has 80 million data points about people’s tastes and a library of 20,000 pieces of art. An AI algorithm that we have called Daisy is then able to match each user’s tastes with more art they may be interested in.
KULTURA already has 100,000 profiles and what is noticeable is how consistent online art curation is across demographics, territories and art styles. Certainly, the works are different and each user’s taste is unique, but Daisy is able to recommend art with as much precision for a user in China as it can for another in Nigeria or the UK.
The result of this matching of art and individual tastes means each KULTURA user has, on average, a collection of 800 artworks – almost the same number on display at Tate Britain, without spending a penny. KULTURA also helps artists get discovered, by recommending up-and-coming names alongside Botticelli and Van Gogh.
Art-discovery AI is as radical for the art world and art literacy as the invention of printing was to the world of books and reading. Next year, as more people use it to discover new artists and new works, art will become more mainstream. It will occupy the same space as music, movies and video games – a fun, everyday part of hundreds of millions of people’s lives that’s accessible anywhere by anyone.
Get more expert predictions for the year ahead. The WIRED World in 2022 features intelligence and need-to-know insights sourced from the smartest minds in the WIRED network. Available now on newsstands, as a digital download, or you can order your copy online.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
