Robots in the art world are nothing new. In fact, for centuries, people have built robots as art objects. However, what’s different now is that artists and engineers are building robots that actually create art.
In 1973, British-born painter Harold Cohen wrote a computer program and called it AARON. At first, AARON only made simple outlines whose color and details Cohen would later add. Fifty years later, AARON is able to paint anything a human could paint. So can AARON be called an artist or creative? In 2010, Cohen explained, “Although he wrote the initial computer code that AARON follows, AARON can generate unlimited numbers of images.” So according to Cohen, the simple answer is yes-AARON is creative.
It’s not just paintings that robots are creating, though. Last year, a robot called Shimon released is first album (唱片) on Spotify. Shimon began life as a simple robot marimba (木琴) player. Over the years, however, it’s learned how to perform with other musicians, write original songs. Shimon does this by analyzing huge amounts of music—roughly 50,000 rock, jazz and hip-hop songs-to identify patterns and then uses that information to create original works.
It may be cool to hear a song created by a robot, but is there any other reason to build robots that can play music? According to Gil Weinberg, one of Shimon’s creators, because the robot is capable of doing things that a real musician might not think of, he and his team “hope and believe that these new abilities would lead to new directions that could not be achieved in human-to-human cooperation.”
While questions about robots creating art are fun to think about, there are many other ways that robots can help artists in the way they create their works. For example, advancements in 3D-printing technology will allow artists to build more complex pieces for their sculptures. Therefore, robots in the art world are here to stay.
【小题1】What was AARON able to do at first?| A．Paint people and landscapes. | B．Prepare basic outlines for Cohen. |
| C．Draw pictures of itself and Cohen. | D．Color paintings under Cohen’s instructions. |
| A．It is both a marimba and guitar player. |
| B．It has created about 50,000 original songs. |
| C．It is expected to push humans to achieve more. |
| D．Its creators hope that it can outperform humans. |
| A．Positive. | B．Worried. | C．Neutral. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．AARON and Shimon | B．Robots in the Real World |
| C．Programmed Creativity | D．Advancements in Technology |
