AI Unveils Unseen Bits Of ‘Mona Lisa’ In Viral Trend To ‘Expand’ Artworks

It appears that a new trend has taken over the world of artificial intelligence. Recently, multimedia artist Alexander Dobrokotov introduced a new look to iconic album covers using Adobe’s latest ‘Generative Fill’ tool to expand the images beyond their original parameters.

Now, the experimentation has carried over to famed works of art, including perhaps the most famous of them all: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. An image on Twitter has gone viral by “unveiling” an enlarged version of the painting featuring a canyon-like landscape.

1. Ever wonder what the rest of the Mona Lisa looks like?

Got @Adobe Firefly to help fill out the background for me with the power of AI

Here's what the backgrounds of the most famous paintings in the world look like with AI: pic.twitter.com/2nkqESLrE9

— Kody Young / 💬 Your AI Interpreter (@heykody) May 26, 2023

Kody Young, the user behind the images, continued the experiment by expanding Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night, Nighthawks by Edward Hopper, and even A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Pierre Seurat.

However, not everyone’s impressed with AI’s fill-in-the-gaps function. Twitter user Jill Murray posited that the main issue with the technology was the assumption that everything, even works of art, “always need or want more.”

3. Van Gogh, Café Terrace at Night

Pretty much any Van Gogh is GREAT with AI: something about the distinctive brushstrokes get copied perfectly pic.twitter.com/OiPZGa6QON

— Kody Young / 💬 Your AI Interpreter (@heykody) May 26, 2023

She pointed out that “choosing exactly what we mean to say and show is central to both art and communication. What lies beyond the frame was not chosen; that was the point.” Other critics frowned upon the fact that the generator did not add the lower half of the body to the Mona Lisa.

Some chimed in with parodies, such as Dan Ozzi, who “used the power of AI” to fill out the background of The Beatles’ White Album, which of course, as its name implies, appears as just a white space.

Ever wonder what the rest of the Beatles' White Album looks like? Using the power of AI, I filled out the background. There is no limit to this amazing technology. pic.twitter.com/jdiqtdYf9D

— Dan Ozzi (@danozzi) May 30, 2023

While there’s certainly a discussion to be had about the merits of using generative AI to “improve” art pieces, a bigger question is if images or prose generated by technology can really be constituted as art.

“AI may have its purposes, but making art isn’t one of them. No matter how many “novels” you ask it to write or how many paintings you ask it to extend. The closes [sic] it gets to having meaning is the meaning we are trying to find in it,” argued Celeste Ng.

AI may have its purposes, but making art isn't one of them. No matter how many "novels" you ask it to write or how many paintings you ask it to extend. The closes it gets to having meaning is the meaning WE are trying to find in it. /end

— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) May 30, 2023

It won’t be surprising if this debate never ends.

using AI to expand this shot in Fast & Furious 6 and achieve the filmmakers true vision 😌🙏 pic.twitter.com/Mv49YPMPwQ

— cardinal copium (@emotionalpedant) May 30, 2023

Ever wonder what the rest of the Mona Lisa looks like?

Got @Adobe Firefly to help fill out the background for me with the power of AI.

Here's what the backgrounds of the most famous paintings in the world look like with AI. (1/317) pic.twitter.com/z6tvxgmPuP

— Pangent Technologies 🐧 (@pangenttech) May 30, 2023

(9/317) Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait!

Super-interesting how it rendered the rest of the bed, the entirely new window on the left, and the extra shoerag on the floor! pic.twitter.com/vQlPuof4gt

— Pangent Technologies 🐧 (@pangenttech) May 30, 2023

[via Forbes and Mashable, cover image via Darius Strazdas | Dreamstime.com]