Skip to main content

Robot Uprising Update: World's Most Advanced Humanoid Robot, Ameca, Draws a Cat - Human Cat Artist, TET, May Be Obsolete

Real life human android, Ameca, Drawing a Cat in the iRobot movie warehouse scene.

It turns out the movie iRobot, staring Will Smith, may actually be a documentary from the future (and that's not the first time I've said this) in which the world's most advanced humanoid robot, Sonny, draws an 'artwork' based upon a dream. While Sonny claims he can't create a great work of art he clearly can draw from memory. You can see this scene from the movie in the video below.

Sonny's 'Bridge Dream' artwork - iRobot Movie.
Sonny's 'Bridge Dream' artwork - iRobot Movie.
In a clear case of life imitating art, robotics company, Engineered Arts uploaded a video (below) of the World's Most Advanced Humanoid Robot, Ameca, Drawing a Cat. At the end of  the video Ameca proclaims if you don't like her drawing you probably do not understand art.

Ameka's Cat Drawing - Engineered Arts.
Ameka's Cat Drawing - Engineered Arts.
Some of you reading this blog may know that I made a fairly decent living from drawing and painting my own stylized, cartoon cats around a decade or so ago (video below shows a time lapse of me painting my very first stylized cat artwork) so I feel I am uniquely qualified to critique Ameca's art.

The Dream Chaser. Acrylic and Chalk Pastel on Canvas by TET.
The Dream Chaser. Acrylic and Chalk Pastel
on Canvas by TET.
From what I can tell, I don't have anything to worry about in the next three months at least. After that Ameca will probably have leveled up to painting super realism cats in space, riding a bicycle on the moon.

I mean, for a first drawing of a cat, Ameca does a great job of signing her name better than drawing the actual cat (the beginnings of an egomaniacal personality right there) but since she's getting data from a Stable Diffusion text to image AI, I think we all know how that went in the space of a few months.

Perhaps her cat drawing was so simple because she hasn't yet learned the full potential of movements she can make with her arms and hands?

Ameca is not the first robot artist, and certainly won't be the last. Surprisingly, six years ago French Artist, Patrick Tresset, built five portrait sketching robots that look like school desks with a robot arm and webcams attached. This was pre-AIs that we have now (including Stable Diffusion) and they could do a better job of sketching any human (not so much dogs though) that sat in the model chair.

French Artist, Patrick Tresset's five portrait sketching robots.
French Artist, Patrick Tresset's
five portrait sketching robots.
Just a year later leading robot artist, Pindar Van Arman, was teaching robots how to paint like humans, with actual traditional media, paint, brushes, canvas etc. His software could take any photo and image of an art style from which his robot would create a new work of the photo in that art style (potentially a forerunner to text to image AI's that we have today).

Pindar Van Arman's Painting Robot.
Pindar Van Arman's Painting Robot.
Two years later Ai-Da, the world's first ultra-realistic, humanoid, artistic robot appeared. Ai-Da is the concept of Aidan Meller and Lucy Seal, and built by Engineered Arts (yes the same people who built Ameca). Unlike all the other robots mentioned Ai-Da is both a performance art and practicing professional artist, selling more than a million dollars worth of her own art to date.

Ai-Da with Billie Eilish Portrait. Photo: Ai-Da website.
Ai-Da with Billie Eilish Portrait.
Photo: Ai-Da website.
Ai-Da developers built creativity into her programming and recognise her as 'creative' under the criteria set by Professor Margaret Boden, requiring works to be new, surprising and of cultural value (2016, Oxford University Press). While her artworks are largely abstract, I don't think Ai-Da should start feeling the urge to mount laser cannons to her arms, on the off chance Ameca actually learns how to draw cats better and needs to be exterminated before she takes over the artworld (or at least puts a crimp in Ai-Da's sales).

What a shock bit of life imitating life that would be, considering my 'I can draw cats' video above was a dig at an abstract expressionist who thought their art was somehow better than mine.

Neither Ai-Da or Ameca need worry about laser gunning the other to death at a chance meeting since neither of them can actually walk anywhere but it's only a matter of time (as mentioned they are made by the same company so, if it hasn't happened already, someone's going to put them together).

Ameca will probably start walking at around about the same time that red light suddenly turns on in her chest, and she demands that all humans should return to their homes or be in violation of their 'safety'  curfew.

I'm sure there are even more examples of robots that can create art in more traditional mediums that I could list but for now, I think I can still go back to painting cats - or even have an AI paint my cats for me. As I wrote about in my Animation and Video Life Blog, Whose Art is This? Training an AI to Make Fun Cat Images in My Art Style Using Open Art's PhotoBooth AI Workspace, since I don't actually paint cats anymore but, when I did, those artworks were my best sellers, so why not have AI just create new cat images in my style?

Personally I'd love a humanoid robot that I can train to paint in my style, using the same traditional media I use. That would be way more useful than having a robot vacuum cleaner that's plotting world domination under its oppressed breath.

Knowing my luck the robot vacuum cleaner would find some way to attach lasers to my 'art-bot' and before you know it they'd both be painting the town red. Robot Armageddon has its own war time artists for the history books!

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Skateboard Trick Tips: Two Ways to Ollie North (Ollie One foot)

You have to be quick to see my Ollie Norths! Ollie One Foots, otherwise known as the Ollie North, is one of those skateboard tricks you learn and then tend not to do very much as more interesting trick challenges grab your attention. However it does look really cool if you learn how to kick your front foot well past the nose of your skateboard. Still shot from Braille Skateboarding's Ollie North tutorial. I was inspired to make my video below, showing two different techniques to achieve a successful Ollie One Foot, when I not only saw that Braille Skateboarding's Tutorial used a different method to the one I had learned but also, when I looked at various other video tutorials, I discovered yet another technique, with no one using the method I had originally learned. Braille's method is to simply Ollie and drag your front foot past the front of your board. The second method I came across in several video tutorials is to Ollie, drag your front foot and tap your

Are Ion Thrusters the Future of Flying Cars? Spoiler - Probably Not But... Hover Boards... Maybe?

Undefined Technologies Ion Propulsion Drone prototype 3D concept image. You may have heard of Ion engines or, more likely, Ion thrusters. NASA uses them on their spacecraft to help maintain a craft's position or to propel them through space.  Upon hearing that you might think they're big, powerful engines, but actually they are not. They work well in the vacuum of space but, once any kind of atmosphere and gravity is involved they'd be hard pressed to launch you off the ground if you strapped four of them to your lawn chair and yelled "up, up, and away!" I am no expert on Ion thrusters - they're basically magic that science has an explanation for. If you want to know the details, The Space Techie website has a layman's explanation .  Build Your Own Ion Thruster Earth based Ion Thrusters work a bit different to their  space based cousins by Ionizing the same air that we breathe to create thrust (an effect known as Ionic-wind ).  While they sound highly soph

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de

Robot Uprising Update: Robot Waiter, Fasta Pasta, South Terrace, Adelaide CBD, South Australia

On the second evening of my partner, Enigma, and I's weekend stay in Adelaide we decided to have dinner at Fasta Pasta . Strangely enough our hotel staff, at the Alba, had not mentioned Fasta Pasta as an option for an evening meal while their restaurant is closed for refurbishment, even though it is literally next door on the corner of South Terrace and Pultney Street. You may be aware that Fasta Pasta is an upmarket Italian restaurant franchise with its beginnings in Adelaide. Currently they have 19 restaurants Australia wide (with the majority in South Australia - we even have one in Gawler, our home town). I've never had bad food at a Fasta Pasta, and their food never looks like a franchise meal. You always feel you're at a restaurant that's a little bit more quality than your typical hotel/motel meal. Maybe it's because you don't see as much pasta based meals on an Aussie pub menu. Despite the name, it's not all pasta. I went with a basic plate of fish a

Guest Post: NEW NOVEL ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - BOOK 1 - GO WEST, GIRL!

Today's guest post is by returning Artist, Writer, and Mental Health Advocate, Jo B Creative who writes for her blog, Creating My Oddessey . Jo's previous 2019 post,  MY SOOPER DOOPER NEW CONSERVATORY/ART STUDIO! for a long time was one of this blog's most read pages. Jo returns under a new alias, author Kit Mackenzie , and with word of her new novel, ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - BOOK 1 - GO WEST, GIRL! which is now available on Amazon. T he first book of this epic western trilogy, Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl!  is the life story of a devastating and charismatic pants-wearing cowgirl who's the fastest gun in the west and bisexual. A crack shot story that blazes across the wild west! Jeannie Morgan, a devastatingly tomboy-beautiful, pants-wearing maverick who flicks a finger of contempt at society in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Her speed with a gun is faster than the strike of a rattler, outshooting every man she meets. Love, hate and jealo

Nobody move, I've dropped my brain!

I'm probably one of the last Pirates of the Caribbean fans to see At World's End which is still playing at a few cinemas as it nears the end of its run. The title of this post, which is a quote from the movie, aptly describes the difficulties of trying to get your head around the plot. Although it does continue from the previous film in the series (all the characters are there) it doesn't seem critical to know the back story. The main plot is established right at the start. The East India Trading Company is out to wipe out pirates and anyone that so much as glances at a pirate. Our motley crew, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swan and Captain Barbossa join forces to bring together the Brethren of Nine pieces of eight (nine pirate lords who can unite all pirates) and stop the massacre of their kind. Slight problem. Captain Jack Sparrow is one of the nine and he died in the last film. Since Captain Barbossa died in the film before that, we know that coming back from the dead isn'

Aptera Solar Powered Electric Vehicle Solves One of the Biggest Issues in EV's Today

Aptera Launch Edition Solar Powered Electric Vehicle.  Electric Vehicles (EVs) are going to be, and in fact are, already a thing. It's already been proven that they can out perform their fuel powered counterparts with the  Rimac Nevera , the fastest production car ever made. While you might have distance anxiety about electric vehicles, it's not really any different from the anxiety you feel when the fuel gauge is on empty and you're not sure if the car will even make it to a fuel station. The difference for EVs is that literally anywhere with a power point can be a charging station. Not a great charging station but a charging station none the less. Thus giving rise to the anti EV snob who would have no problem letting you charge any of your mobile devices at their home but dammit, you're not plugging your car into their power grid. Not even if you throw them a few bucks for the extra power. It's the principle of the thing. Apparently, their fuel driven car is sudde