24: Tom White & Gene Kogan on the Birth of GAN Art (Deep Learning Series 01)

Episode page and full transcript: lerandom.art/episodes/tom-white-and-gene-kogan…

This is Part I of our Deep Learning Series where Peter Bauman (Monk Antony, Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with the most relevant figures in deep learning art. In this first installment, Peter speaks with two of the earliest artists to engage with the intersection of art and deep generative models, Tom White (lerandom.art/subjects/tom-white) (dribnet) and Gene Kogan (lerandom.art/subjects/gene-kogan).

They explore the artistic, philosophical and cultural implications of GANs and deep generative models, drawing on the artists' early experiences and perspectives in the field . The conversation touches on the origins of their interest in GANs, the evolution of AI and its perception, critiques of AI art, the nature of machine representations, and the connection between AI and decentralization.

Also in this episode: John Maeda (lerandom.art/subjects/john-maeda), MIT (lerandom.art/subjects/mit), Alec Radford (lerandom.art/subjects/alec-radford), Joanna Zylinska (lerandom.art/subjects/joanna-zylinska), Karl Sims (lerandom.art/subjects/karl-sims), Casey Reas (lerandom.art/subjects/casey-reas), Golan Levin (lerandom.art/subjects/golan-levin), Harold Cohen (lerandom.art/subjects/harold-cohen), Ian Goodfellow (lerandom.art/subjects/ian-goodfellow), Kyle McDonald (lerandom.art/subjects/kyle-mcdonald)

Read next: Reprogramming Sensory Habits (lerandom.art/editorial/reprogramming-sensory-h…)

Listen next: Ep. 13, Timeline Ch 9—AI Era (2010s) with Tyler Hobbs, Helena Sarin, Rhea Myers & Gene Kogan (lerandom.art/episodes/timeline-chapter-9-ai-er…), Ep. 31, Ian Goodfellow on Inventing GANs with Peter Bauman (Deep Learning Series 02) (lerandom.art/episodes/ian-goodfellow-on-invent…)

On the Living Timeline: Color of words by Gene Kogan (2011) (timeline.lerandom.art/m/color-of-words-by-gene…), Gene Kogan Creates BrainDrops, Long-Form AI Art Platform (2021) (timeline.lerandom.art/m/gene-kogan-creates-bra…)

Chapters 📖:
00:00 Introduction
01:50 What first excited them about GANs?
04:04 How did Gene come to machine learning?
08:55 How did AI Twitter take off?
12:04 Why make AI tools accessible?
17:56 How did views of computation change?
21:54 How does the art world critique AI?
27:42 What is Tom's algorithmic gaze?
34:00 What is art by AI for AI?
37:49 Can AI be decentralized?
40:33 What did Tom make early on at MIT?
43:13 Final Thoughts