Salvador Dalí come back to life thanks to Artificial Intelligence

Salvador Dalí come back to life thanks to Artificial Intelligence

From images, photographs and interviews of the great Spanish artist an algorithm was trained to "learn" the facial movements of Dalí (See Video)

The Dalí Museum of Saint Petersburg, Florida, has created an ad in which artificial intelligence (AI) plays a very important role. With the help of deepfake technology, the deceased Salvador Dalí seems to have returned to life on video after 30 years.

"Greetings, I'm Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí and Domènech and ... I'm back", are the first words released by the IA version of the renowned Spanish surrealist, who died in 1989, in one of the videos. The result is truly amazing.

For Hank Hine, the museum's executive director, the goal is to bring culture to people in an attractive way. In addition, he adds that this method would have greatly pleased Dalí himself.

The announcement comes with the aim of promoting Dalí Lives, a program that will take place in April of this year in the museum's facilities. The purpose of artificial intelligence, hand in hand with deepfakes, is to elevate the experience to another level.

 

In this way, visitors to the museum, starting in April, will be able to interact with Salvador Dalí's version IA from various screens that will be located throughout the museum. In small video clips, Dalí will recite from his original phrases to other topical comments.

"I think the seeds of this project were sown by the artist himself," says Hine. "Dalí was famous for his sense of his own eternal existence. It's almost like, if he had left us instructions, this project would have been between them. "

 

How they did it?

According to Artnet News, the final product was the fruit of an arduous work of six months. In this time the team responsible for the project had to gather images, photographs, interviews and much material of the late surrealist.

The material collected was used to train an artificial intelligence algorithm with the aim of being able to "learn" Dalí's facial movements. Then some new films were made with the help of a similar actor. The AI, from all this could generate a digital version that is too similar to the original Salvador Dalí.

Dalí once said: "If one day I die, although it is unlikely, I hope that people in the cafes will say: 'Dalí has ​​died, but not quite.' [...] I do not believe in death in general and for nothing in the death of Dalí ". In this sense, Hine is quite satisfied, "we have made his prophetic words. We have returned it to life! "

Deepfake videos are becoming increasingly viral. A few days ago with the help of YouTube tutorials, a Reddit user managed to mix the body and voice of Jennifer Lawrence and the face of Steve Buscemi. Even greater problems can be generated by encouraging fakenews. A clear example is the video deepfake in which Obama insulted Donald Trump calling him "total and complete idiot".

 

From:  https://www.tampabay.com/visual-arts/first-look-salvador-dalxed-comes-back-to-life-in-artificial-intelligence-with-dalxed-lives-20190509/