AI-powered robotic arm collaborates with artists to create art

"AI is the future!" is a statement of the past now, as AI is no longer the future but our present.

After ChatGPT shocked the whole world with its abilities, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University created an AI-powered robot that could create exceptional artwork on physical canvas with the help of simple text prompts, according to a press release.

The FRIDA robot (the Framework and Robotics Initiative for Developing Arts) can create unique paintings using photographs, human inputs, or even music. The final result is somewhat a resemblance to a basic finger painting. While most AI bots do not have physical robot correspondence, FRIDA does.

Making decisions in Real-time 

Contrary to similar bots, FRIDA analyzes its brushwork in real time and makes adjustments accordingly. Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University Peter Schaldenbrand said, "FRIDA is a robotic painting system, but FRIDA is not an artist." He added, "FRIDA is not generating the ideas to communicate. FRIDA is a system that an artist could collaborate with. The artist can specify high-level goals for FRIDA, and then FRIDA can execute them."  

Researchers involved in FRIDA's creation said its art is "whimsical and impressionistic" while also appreciating its ability to "riff" on a mistake.   

Frida is here to help, not replace 

Fear not if you are an artist worried that this AI might throw you out of your job. A faculty member of the University, Jean Oh, said, "We want to really promote human creativity through FRIDA. For instance, I personally wanted to be an artist. Now, I can actually collaborate with FRIDA to express my ideas in painting."  

"FRIDA is a project exploring the intersection of human and robotic creativity," stated Jim McCann, another faculty member. McCann added, "FRIDA is using the kind of AI models that have been developed to do things like caption images and understand scene content and applying it to this artistic generative problem."   

FRIDA creators label the robot as a tool for enhancing human creativity. As per the research paper of the team, "FRIDA is a robotics initiative to promote human creativity, rather than replacing it, by providing intuitive ways for humans to express their ideas using natural language or sample images."  

In the future, researchers hope to sharpen FRIDA'S adroitness and expand its capabilities to sculpting one day.