AI and the long view
What makesus human?
Andrew Conru has been asking that about machines, art and meaning for more than a decade, well before AI was in every headline.
RobotArt, 2016–2018
In late 2015 Andrew offered $100,000 in prizes for robots that paint with a real brush. Three contests ran:
- 201616 teams from 7 countries, more than 70 artworks. Winner: TAIDA, National Taiwan University.
- 201738 teams from 10 countries, 200 artworks. Winner: PIX18, Creative Machines Lab, Columbia University.
- 201819 teams, more than 100 artworks. Winner: CloudPainter, using deep learning.
The robots got very good at brushwork. A judge’s note on one 2017 painting gets at what was still missing:
“Composition and brush strokes evocative of Van Gogh ... Felt a bit like a texture or pattern making, so less emotional.”
RobotArt judges, 2017
AI and meaning
The question has moved from canvases to everyday work. AI is starting to take on the work that gave many people their sense of who they are. When that goes, what holds people up is craft, art and community: things you make, and people you make them with.
“The power of the algorithm is our biggest worry right now, because it runs all the way to AI.”
Andrew Conru, 2026
That’s why the eighth principle is about the algorithm and the human, and why the rest are about you.
Rehumanism
Andrew’s answer in art is what he calls rehumanism: art with a purpose, made for the public good rather than for private collectors. The Conru Art Foundation supports painters and shows their work to the public.