“That whorehouse on 53rd Street.”

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

Up till 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.

Here’s how it worked. First, six artists were exposed to Watson’s various programs. (These are called API’s) The artists interpreted Watson’s API’s in an original composition. Then, we had Watson process the work of the artist. And create an original composition based on Watson’s impressions of that artist’s work. A true partnership of creative expression and artificial intelligence. Artist and Watson creating together. Often based on their mutual impressions of one another. We reproduced the resulting artwork as a widely distributed poster series.

-Created a poster series 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.