View source for Edmond de Belamy

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}{{Short description|Painting created by artificial intelligence}}
{{Infobox artwork
| title = Edmond de Belamy
| painting_alignment = 
| wikidata = Q56299046
| image = Edmond de Belamy.png
| image_upright = 
| artist = Obvious (collective)
| year = {{circa|2018}}
| medium = Ink print
| subject = Male portrait
| height_metric = 70
| width_metric = 70
| height_imperial = 27.5
| width_imperial = 27.5
| metric_unit = cm
| imperial_unit = in
| weight = 
| designation = 
| condition = 
| coordinates = <!-- Only use for the coordinates (when known) of the artwork itself, i.e. not for the site, building, structure, etc where it is kept, otherwise leave blank (or omit): {{coord|LAT|LON|type:landmark|display=inline,title}} -->
| owner = 
| accession = 
| preceded_by = <!-- preceding work by the same artist -->
| followed_by = <!-- next work by the same artist -->
| module = 
| website = <!-- Official webpage/site only: {{URL|example.com}} -->
}}
'''''Edmond de Belamy''''', sometimes referred to as '''''Portrait of Edmond de Belamy''''', is a [[generative adversarial network]] (GAN) [[portrait painting]] constructed by Paris-based arts collective '''Obvious''' in 2018 from [[WikiArt]]{{'s}} artwork database.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Alleyne |first=Allyssia |date=2018-10-25 |title=AI-produced artwork sells for $433K, smashing expectations |url=https://www.cnn.com/style/article/obvious-ai-art-christies-auction-smart-creativity/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240127010425/https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/obvious-ai-art-christies-auction-smart-creativity/index.html |archive-date=January 27, 2024 |access-date=2024-05-26 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref> Printed on canvas, the work belongs to a series of [[Generative artificial intelligence|generative images]] called '''''La Famille de Belamy'''''. The print is known for being sold for {{Currency|432,500|USD}} during a [[Christie's]]{{'s}} auction.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Todorovic |first1=Milos |title=AI and Heritage: A Discussion on Rethinking Heritage in a Digital World |journal=International Journal of Cultural and Social Studies |date=2024 |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=6|doi=10.46442/intjcss.1397403 |url=https://www.academia.edu/121596389 |access-date=4 July 2024}}</ref>

The name ''Belamy'' is a [[pun]] based on [[Ian Goodfellow]], inventor of GANs. In [[French language|French]], "bel ami" means "good friend", which is an allude to Goodfellow's name.

The work has been criticized as having been created with another AI artist's uncredited code.

== Auction ==
It gained media attention after [[Christie's]] announced its intention to auction the piece as the first artwork created using [[artificial intelligence]] to be featured in the "Prints & Multiples" sale at the Christie's Images [[New York City|New York]] auction. The picture was originally hung on the wall to the right of a [[Bronze sculpture|bronze work]] by [[Roy Lichtenstein]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cohn |first=Gabe |date=2018-10-22 |title=Up for Bid, AI Art Signed 'Algorithm' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/arts/design/christies-art-artificial-intelligence-obvious.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208210431/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/arts/design/christies-art-artificial-intelligence-obvious.html |archive-date=February 8, 2024 |access-date=2024-05-27 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

The local and online auction's bidding was started on 23 October 2018 among five parties.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Poli |first=Valentina |date=2018-08-30 |title=Christie's mette all'asta Ritratto di Edmond Belamy, opera dipinta da un'Intelligenza Artificiale |trans-title=Christie's auctions Portrait of Edmond Belamy, a work painted by an Artificial Intelligence |url=https://www.artribune.com/dal-mondo/2018/08/christies-asta-ritratto-intelligenza-artificiale/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230802053831/https://www.artribune.com/dal-mondo/2018/08/christies-asta-ritratto-intelligenza-artificiale/ |archive-date=August 2, 2023 |access-date=2024-05-28 |website=Artribune |at=How Does It Work |language=it-IT}}</ref> Six minutes into the bidding, the price went up to {{Currency|350,000|USD}}; the price surpassed pre-auction estimates, which valued it at {{Currency|7,000|USD|linked=no}} to {{Currency|10,000|USD|linked=no}}.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Kinsella |first=Eileen |date=2018-10-25 |title=The First AI-Generated Portrait Ever Sold at Auction Shatters Expectations, Fetching $432,500—43 Times Its Estimate |url=https://news.artnet.com/market/first-ever-artificial-intelligence-portrait-painting-sells-at-christies-1379902 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240317035903/https://news.artnet.com/market/first-ever-artificial-intelligence-portrait-painting-sells-at-christies-1379902 |archive-date=March 17, 2024 |access-date=2024-05-26 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}}</ref> Seven minutes into the bidding, an anonymous [[Proxy bid|phone bidder]] won the auction with a {{Currency|432,500|USD|linked=no}} bid,<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=2018-10-27 |title=An AI masterpiece on canvas: Obvious Art's portrait fetches $432,500 at New York auction |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/an-ai-masterpiece-on-canvas-obvious-arts-portrait-fetches-432500-at-new-york-auction/articleshow/66390468.cms |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105071721/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/an-ai-masterpiece-on-canvas-obvious-arts-portrait-fetches-432500-at-new-york-auction/articleshow/66390468.cms |archive-date=January 5, 2024 |access-date=2024-05-27 |work=The Economic Times |issn=0013-0389}}</ref> and the print was bought for {{Currency|432,500|USD|linked=no}} on 25 October 2018,<ref>{{cite web |title=Edmond de Belamy, from La Famille de Belamy |url=https://www.christies.com/Lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?sid=&intObjectID=6166184&T=Lot&language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230707101938/https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6166184/?sid=&intObjectID=6166184&T=Lot&language=en |archive-date=July 7, 2023 |accessdate=29 October 2018 |website=Christie's |id=Live Auction 16388}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Cohn |first=Gabe |date=2018-10-25 |title=AI Art at Christie's Sells for $432,500 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/arts/design/ai-art-sold-christies.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240516152518/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/arts/design/ai-art-sold-christies.html |archive-date=May 16, 2024 |access-date=2024-05-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> making it the second most expensive artwork in the auction, just cheaper than [[Andy Warhol]]’s artwork, ''Myths'', the 254&nbsp;cm × 254&nbsp;cm 1981 artwork that was sold for {{Currency|780,500|USD|linked=no}}.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Andy Warhol {{!}} Myths |url=https://whitney.org/collection/works/38038 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231205151054/https://whitney.org/collection/works/38038 |archive-date=December 5, 2023 |access-date=2024-05-26 |website=Whitney Museum of American Art |language=en |id=P.2010.340}}</ref>

Obvious stated that the proceeds "will [be used] to refine the algorithm [and] create works that increasingly seem to have been created by a human being".<ref name=":3" />

== Method ==
Obvious's members are Hugo Caselles-Dupré, Pierre Fautrel, and Gauthier Vernier. Caselles-Dupré stated that the algorithm used a "[[discriminator]]".<ref name=":1" /> Hugo Caselles-Dupré found artist Robbie Barrat’s [[open source]] algorithm that was forked from Soumith Chintala on [[GitHub|Github]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zachariou |first=Renée |date=2018-12-16 |title=Machine Learning Art: An Interview With Memo Akten |url=https://www.artnome.com/news/2018/12/13/machine-learning-art-an-interview-with-memo-akten |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240430211239/https://www.artnome.com/news/2018/12/13/machine-learning-art-an-interview-with-memo-akten |archive-date=30 April 2024 |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=Artnome |language=en-US |type=an interview article}}</ref> He then used the algorithm to be trained on a set of 15,000 portraits from the online art encyclopedia [[WikiArt]], spanning the 14th to the 19th centuries.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Nugent |first=Ciara |date=20 August 2018 |title=How an Art Collective is Using Artificial Intelligence to Make Paintings |url=https://time.com/5357221/obvious-artificial-intelligence-art/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320130206/https://time.com/5357221/obvious-artificial-intelligence-art/ |archive-date=March 20, 2023 |magazine=Time}}</ref>

It is manually signed with ink at the bottom-right with <math>\min_{\mathcal{G}}\max_{\mathcal{D}}E_{x}\left[\log(\mathcal{D}(x))\right]+E_{z}\left[\log(1-\mathcal{D}(\mathcal{G}(z)))\right]</math>, which is part of the [[Loss functions for classification|loss function]] [[Metaheuristic|metaheuristic algorithm]] code that produced it.<ref>{{Cite Instagram |postid=b301e2fb-f5c5-483b-9f97-2691370170cc |user=obvious_art |title=We sign our artworks with the mathematical formula of the algorithms we used. |date=July 20, 2018 |access-date=May 27, 2024}}</ref>

== Description ==
The piece is a portrait depiction of a somewhat blurry man, primarily focused on the top-left corner of the canvas, surrounded by whiter color. The dominant colors in the portrait are brown and beige.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Vasant |first1=Pandian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zNnpEAAAQBAJ&q=Edmond+de+Belamy |title=Intelligent Computing and Optimization: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Optimization 2023 |last2=Arefin |first2=Mohammad Shamsul |last3=Panchenko |first3=Vladimir |last4=Thomas |first4=J. Joshua |last5=Munapo |first5=Elias |last6=Weber |first6=Gerhard-Wilhelm |last7=Rodriguez-Aguilar |first7=Roman |date=December 20, 2023 |publisher=Springer Nature Switzerland |isbn=9783031503306 |edition=1st |volume=2 |pages=133 |access-date=May 28, 2024}}</ref> The painting has been associated with the aesthetic provisional name that was proposed by [[François Chollet]], ''GANism'', with 'characteristics' of indistinct-blurry imagery.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last=Vincent |first=James |date=23 October 2018 |title=How three French students used borrowed code to put the first AI portrait in Christie's |url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/23/18013190/ai-art-portrait-auction-christies-belamy-obvious-robbie-barrat-gans |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240304175455/https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/23/18013190/ai-art-portrait-auction-christies-belamy-obvious-robbie-barrat-gans |archive-date=March 4, 2024 |access-date=17 November 2018 |website=The Verge}}</ref>

It is generated and printed by Obvious; the canvas print measures 27&nbsp;{{frac|1|2}} in × 27&nbsp;{{frac|1|2}} in (70&nbsp;cm × 70&nbsp;cm) and is set within a gold-colored [[Wood carving|gilded wood]] [[Frame and panel|frame]].<ref name=":2" />

The work belongs to a series of eleven generative images called ''La Famille de Belamy'' (from [[French language|French]], {{Lit.|Belamy's family}}) that was meant to resemble ''Belamy''<nowiki/>'s [[family tree]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stephensen |first=Jan Løhmann |date=2019-06-01 |title=Towards a Philosophy of Post-creative Practices? – Reading Obvious' "Portrait of Edmond de Belamy" |journal=Politics of the Machine Beirut 2019 |series=Electronic Workshops in Computing |publisher=BCS Learning & Development |doi=10.14236/ewic/POM19.4 |s2cid=210146772 |doi-access=free}}</ref> ''Edmond de Belamy'' is the fictional descendant of ''Madame de Belamy'', a name that was given to another [[Artificial intelligence art|artificial intelligence (AI) artwork]] made by Obvious.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-10-29 |title=Is this art? AI-generated portrait fetches over $400,000 at auction |url=https://newatlas.com/ai-art-auction-obvious-belamy/56984/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605065531/https://newatlas.com/ai-art-auction-obvious-belamy/56984/#gallery:10 |archive-date=June 5, 2023 |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=New Atlas |language=en-US}}</ref> The name ''Belamy'' is a tribute to [[Ian Goodfellow]]'s name, inventor of GANs; in French, "bel ami" means "good friend", a translated pun based on ''good fellow''.<ref name=":0" /> Though the painting is not supposed to be a depiction of any real person.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Turnbull |first=Amanda |date=2020-01-06 |title=The price of AI art: Has the bubble burst? |url=http://theconversation.com/the-price-of-ai-art-has-the-bubble-burst-128698 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231204044145/https://theconversation.com/the-price-of-ai-art-has-the-bubble-burst-128698 |archive-date=December 4, 2023 |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Reception ==
The piece has been criticized because it was created using a [[generative adversarial network]] (GAN) [[Software package (installation)|software package]] that was implemented by Robbie Barrat, a then-19-year-old AI artist who was not affiliated with Obvious. Although they did not originally publicize that they were using Barrat's code, Caselles-Dupré later admitted that they had used the code from Barrat with little modification. "If you’re just talking about the code, then there is not a big percentage that has been modified," Caselles-Dupré said. "But if you talk about working on the computer, making it work, there is a lot of effort there." Posts on the project's issue tracker show Obvious members requesting that Barrat provide them with support and custom features.<ref name=":0" /> 

On the same day that ''Edmond de Belamy'' was sold, Barrat posted two images of comparison between ''Edmond de Belamy'' and his "outputs from a [[Neural network (machine learning)|neural network]] [he] trained and put online *over a year ago*<!-- Keep the asterisks -->" on [[Twitter]], writing that they used his code only to later sell the results.<ref>{{Cite tweet |number=1055285640420483073 |user=videodrome |title=Does anyone else care about this? Am I crazy for thinking that they really just used my network and are selling the results? |first=Robbie |last=Barrat |date=October 25, 2018 |access-date=May 31, 2024}}</ref> [[Mario Klingemann]] wrote that "You could argue that probably 90 percent of the actual 'work' was done by [Barrat]."<ref name=":0" />

The piece has also been criticized for whether it is real "art" or not.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jones |first=Jonathan |date=2018-10-26 |title=A portrait created by AI just sold for $432,000. But is it really art? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2018/oct/26/call-that-art-can-a-computer-be-a-painter |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240120160910/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2018/oct/26/call-that-art-can-a-computer-be-a-painter |archive-date=January 20, 2024 |access-date=2024-05-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Art critic [[Jonathan Jones (artist)|Jonathan Jones]] did not acknowledge ''Edmond de Belamy'' as art.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hicks |first=Olivia |date=March 1, 2019 |title=ART-ificial Intelligence: The Curious Case of Edmond De Belamy – The Isis |url=https://isismagazine.org.uk/2019/03/art-ificial-intelligence-the-curious-case-of-edmond-de-belamy/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240302192656/https://isismagazine.org.uk/2019/03/art-ificial-intelligence-the-curious-case-of-edmond-de-belamy/ |archive-date=March 2, 2024 |access-date=2024-05-26 |website=The Isis Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> The piece has been placed within a tradition of works calling into question the basis of the modern [[art market]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Rolez, Anaïs |date=6 December 2018 |title=The Mechanical Art of Laughter |journal=Arts |location=Nantes, France |publisher=MDPI |publication-date=21 December 2018 |volume=8 |issue=1 |page=2 |doi=10.3390/arts8010002 |issn=2076-0752 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Research has used ''Edmond de Belamy'' to show how [[ELIZA effect|anthropomorphizing AI]] can affect allocations of responsibility and credit to artists.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Epstein |first1=Ziv |last2=Levine |first2=Sydney |last3=Rand |first3=David G. |last4=Rahwan |first4=Iyad |date=25 September 2020 |title=Who Gets Credit for AI-Generated Art? |journal=iScience |publisher=National Library of Medicine |volume=23 |issue=9 |page=101515 |bibcode=2020iSci...23j1515E |doi=10.1016/j.isci.2020.101515 |pmc=7492988 |pmid=32920489 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Ray |first=Tiernan |date=18 September 2020 |title=People's notions about AI are terrible, an MIT study asks whether they can be helped |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/peoples-notions-about-ai-are-terrible-an-mit-study-asks-whether-they-can-be-helped/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004172255/https://www.zdnet.com/article/peoples-notions-about-ai-are-terrible-an-mit-study-asks-whether-they-can-be-helped/ |archive-date=October 4, 2023 |access-date=21 September 2020 |publisher=ZDNet}}</ref>

In an interview, Caselles-Dupré said: "We are in the middle of a storm and lots of false information is released with our name on it. In fact, we are really depressed about it."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-10-14 |title=The AI Art at Christie's Is Not What You Think |url=https://www.artnome.com/news/2018/10/13/the-ai-art-at-christies-is-not-what-you-think |access-date=2024-06-16 |website=Artnome |language=en-US}}</ref> The "false information" that he was pointing to was that the painting was the first portrait that was generated by AI.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Elgammal |first=Ahmed |date=2018-10-29 |title=What the Art World Is Failing to Grasp about Christie's AI Portrait Coup |url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-art-failing-grasp-christies-ai-portrait-coup |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517020933/https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-art-failing-grasp-christies-ai-portrait-coup |archive-date=May 17, 2024 |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=Artsy |language=en}}</ref> 

The head of Christie’s prints and multiples department said he is no expert on AI, having learned about Obvious after reading an article about a collector’s purchase of one of Obvious's previous works for around {{Currency|10,000|EUR}}.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-10-22 |title=Will the market for AI art take off? |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2018/10/22/will-the-market-for-artificial-intelligence-art-take-off |access-date=2024-06-16 |website=The Art Newspaper - International art news and events}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Digital art}}

[[Category:2018 paintings]]
[[Category:Artificial intelligence art]]
[[Category:Fictional French people]]
[[Category:Fictional characters introduced in 2018]]
[[Category:Digital artworks]]