We've seen artificial intelligences create movies, write fictional chapters, and generate very strange nudes, but now it's time to let them draw, or rather, apply color to those drawings. Make room for PaintsChainer, a proof of concept developed by Japanese company Preferred Networks that can take almost any drawing and handle the coloring with the firepower of a neural network. As expected, its results range from very acceptable to terrifying.
AI Takes on Art
The idea that artificial intelligences will take over all jobs in the future continues to gain traction, and we must add the calls for greater regulation, led by none other than Elon Musk, who has already described its dictatorial potential. One of the fields that seems most resistant to the advance of AI is art, but many developers are aiming their guns in that direction. Neural networks can write books and novels, generate paintings (ranging from kittens to gelatinous nudes), and of course, add color where there is none. In mid-2016 we saw the Colorize system in action, and today it's PaintsChainer's turn.
How PaintsChainer Works
The plan here is to let the AI do the heavy lifting, and it all starts by uploading a drawing. It has three main palettes (Canna, Satsuki, and Tanpopo), and each application takes between three and five seconds. Manual tools are there to allow the user to mark color suggestions in certain sections of the drawing. With just a couple of strokes it should be enough, but there's a wide margin to experiment... and get some very delirious results.
Terms and Conditions
PaintsChainer is an interesting tool, as long as we agree with its terms of use. Data collection is there (after all, in the process we're doing nothing more than training a neural network), and the licensing policy is too aggressive for my taste, but the developer of PaintsChainer, Preferred Networks, indicated that it's just a proof of concept, and there are no plans to launch a commercial version. With some adjustments to its terms, a solid interface, and more advanced options... why not?
