Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute’s FRIDA project has recently been gaining traction in exploring the intersection of human and robotic creativity. The project is named after the legendary Mexican portrait painter Frida Kahlo, in honor of her artistic works. The robot artist uses AI models to understand captions and scene content, creating abstract images based on the analysis. During the process of painting, an overhead camera tracks its progress and it is allowed to make mistakes, then adjust the rest of the painting accordingly.
The paintings created by the system can take hours to complete, with accuracy being less of a priority. FRIDA is not only a research project but also a thought experiment challenging traditional perceptions of creativity. The project’s paintings can be viewed on a CMU-run Twitter account. FRIDA is a unique way to explore and better understand the creative possibilities of human-robot collaboration.
