As AI continues to evolve, the line between human and machine is blurring in the art world. One artist has taught a robot to copy her brush strokes so they can paint together.

D.O.U.G. is a machine created by Sougwen Chung. The artist has built and programmed this AI system to work alongside them, creating paintings together. Over the years, it has learned to mimic Chung’s brush strokes. It’s an exploration of how humans and machines can collaborate.

Simonida Pavicevic is co-founder and curator of HOFA Gallery (House of Fine Arts) which represents Chung. She says you can’t separate the artist from her machines.

“So Sougwen managed to do something very impressive where she merges the robots with her work. They don’t work separately. [...] So it’s a teamwork. [...] And she had over ten years of research (into) how to teach them and to teach them to follow her brainwaves, her own ideas, and her own work,” she explains.

For galleries, trying to convince people to purchase a digital artwork can be an uphill battle. Elio D’Anna, co-founder and CEO of HOFA Gallery, says physical objects are the key to getting people to invest in digital art.

“The big challenge with digital art so far has been how do I collect? How can I have it in my house? And with this exhibition, we wanted to focus a lot on that as well, [...] growing the awareness of this new medium and showing that it can also be collected in a both physical and digital way,” he explains.

Digital art is still in its early stages, and it’s had a difficult beginning. But experts expect the market to grow.

But what role will AI play in creating art as the technology evolves? The smart money is on it being another tool in the artist’s paintbox.

“In anything creative, there’s always a lot of error, going back and exploring and doing it again and so on. And a lot of this is for sure being replaced by machine learning and by AI systems that are able to help you speed up that process and to achieve to where you want to go,” says D’Anna.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.