“That whorehouse on 53rd Street.”

—MOMA as described by Francis Henry Taylor, Director, Metropolitan Museum of Art—© 1950’s

Up until now, the creation of art has been a purely human pursuit. But art is also about constantly pushing the boundaries of “art”. So we decided to do what no one else had—have artists interpret Watson. And Watson interpret these artists. The result was the world’s first artistic collaboration between artist and machine. Would it really be art in the end? That, of course, is debatable. The quotation above illustrates that point. But involving Watson in the creation of art— and the debate of it’s creation—would be a major success for a technology that’s considered cold, inhuman and sinister. Even more importantly, it might encourage people to collaborate with Watson in other ways. Which is essential to growing our business.

Artist Oleg Soroko studies the various aptitudes (or API’s) of IBM Watson. He becomes interested in Watson’s “Concept Insight API”. This API allows Watson to analyze any document (like an article in a magazine, for example.) Watson can quickly explain the key concept. But also, Watson then gives the user relevant background information that helps the user understand the concept better. The artist interprets Watson’s API in his execution. Literally taking a described ability of Watson, and giving it pure artistic form.

-Created a poster for 400,000 IBM employees and the world at large.

-Taught Watson more about the nature of humanity and art. (Watson learns from every interaction.)

-Taught humans to be more open-minded about the non-dystopian possibilities of A.I.

-Pushed the boundaries of art—outward.

-Created an entirely new collaborative art form between artist and AI.