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While studying John Singer Sargent's paintings of wealthy women in 19th-century society, Jessica Helfand, a former Caltech artist in residence, had an idea: to search census records to find the identities of those women's servants. "I thought, What happens if I paint these women in the style of John Singer Sargent?' It's a sort of cultural restitution," Helfand explained, "reverse engineering the narrative by reclaiming a kind of beauty, style, and majesty."

To recreate a style from history, she turned to technology that, increasingly, is driving the future. "Could AI help me figure out how to paint, say, lace or linen, to capture the folds of clothing in daylight?" Helfand discussed her process in a seminar and discussion moderated by Hillary Mushkin, research professor of art and design in engineering and applied science and the humanities and social sciences. The event, part of Caltech's Visual Culture program, also featured Joanne Jang, product lead at DALL-E, an AI system that generates images based on user-supplied prompts.

While DALL-E has a number of practical applications from urban planning, to clothing design, to cooking, the technology also raises new questions. Helfand and Jang spoke about recent advancements in generative AI, ethical considerations when using such tools, and the distinction between artistic intelligence and artificial intelligence.

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Reviving the Past with Artificial Intelligence - Caltech