BMW’s Latest Art Cars Were Created With Artificial Intelligence

Art cars have been around for decades, but BMW is giving them a high-tech makeover as they’ve unveiled “The Ultimate AI Masterpiece.”

As the name suggests, the cars were created with artificial intelligence and they’ll debut as part of a virtual art installation in conjunction with Frieze New York 2021.

The cars were created in partnership with creative technologist Nathan Shipley and art collector Gary Yeh. They used Nvidia’s open source StyleGAN artificial intelligence software to “cross-reference over 50,000 images of artwork spanning 900 years of art history and a curated set of 50 works from renowned and emerging contemporary artists BMW has worked with over the past 50 years.” These pieces were used to teach the AI about art, so it could then come up with new designs of its own.

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The resulting designs mix classical and contemporary style, and were “projection-mapped onto a virtual rendition” of the BMW 8-Series Gran Coupe. While they may not be the physical art cars we’ve come to know and love, a handful of the designs are pretty eye-catching and would make for an interesting wrap.

In a statement, Yeh said “During an unusually isolated time in history, we took the opportunity to curate and work with artists from around the world as a means to give viewers a true art experience digitally.” He added, “It was particularly exciting to push the boundaries of art, see how technology may influence the art world in the years to come, and build on 50 years of cultural engagement at BMW.”