BMW combines art and artificial intelligence to create 'The Ultimate AI Masterpiece'

BMW debuted The Ultimate AI Masterpiece, a unique exploration of art and technology that uses artificial intelligence to generate entirely new creations. 
 
The Ultimate AI Masterpiece virtual art installation was held in partnership with Creative Technologist Nathan Shipley and Gary Yeh, founder of artDrunk. The duo leveraged the NVIDIA StyleGAN artificial intelligence model to cross-reference over 50,000 images of artwork spanning 900 years of history, in addition to a curated set of 50 works from renowned and emerging contemporary artists BMW has worked with over the past five decades. 

Using these inputs as a basis for understanding art, the artificial intelligence programme is able to generate original works of art, merging what it has learned from classical art and the stylistic elements of contemporary artists. These new works have been projection-mapped onto a virtual rendition of BMW's range-topping 8 Series Gran Coupe.

The virtual art installation debuts in conjunction with Frieze New York 2021, as well as the 50^th anniversary of the BMW Group's Cultural Engagement programme.

To document the creative process behind the virtual installation, Shipley and Yeh collaborated virtually from different parts of the world - Yeh in Seoul, Shipley in San Francisco - and held an engaging discussion on the technology behind the artwork created by their programme, and BMW's decades-long support of the arts. 

The Ultimate AI Masterpiece documentary video is available for viewing at BMW U.S.A's YouTube channel here.