Diplomatic World_nummer 57

to modify the initial program without any human control.
Analysts creating algorithms make mistakes and are biased,
since they are human. Their product should be statistically
reliable and fair to all. Only reverse engineering of the
program can reveal its flaws and mistakes. AI is directly and
narrowly target-oriented to anticipate our needs in a strictly
rational and defined way. Computers don’t have intentions;
they repeat and adapt learned patterns. But our intelligence
is profoundly influenced by context and emotion, and
therefore sensitive to nuances and aesthetic awareness.
The major aspect of human perception is its ontological
complexity, beyond the grasp of today’s algorithms and the
understandings of the analysts creating them. The glitches
of AI can have dangerous consequences.
To make AI more sensitive to the complete scope of
human thought requires insight and collaboration with
people with highly specialized domain knowledge. On
the other side, since wellbeing is not an exact science,
the immense variation of individual conscious and nonconscious
requirements will have to be centralized roughly
in a pre-determined number of prototypes. This will lead
to a schematic reduction of human diversity. Orwell is
not far away. How will the deep-learning algorithms adapt
themselves to the real-life circumstances of their targets
without being connected to a refined application of all
fields of cognitive science, sociology, psychology and a final
human control? The simple fact that they modify themselves
continuously to upgrade their performance will make it
nearly impossible to monitor them in real time. No amount
of human ingenuity will eliminate this threat. Moreover, the
main concern is that the analysts, creating AI algorithms,
will not necessarily be motivated by a human-centered
morality. Underrepresented communities will not be taken
into account. The threat of job displacement is real. The
only question is: How much, where and when?
CATALOGUING ART
Collectors are progressively more interested in using the
Internet to manage their collections. According to the Art
Market report (2018) of Art Basel and UBS, online sales
increased 10% year-on-year to $5.4 billion and accounted for
8% of the value of global sales in 2017. Since 2011, ‘Google
Arts & Culture project’ combines AI with image data of
artworks and art historical content. On the basis of selfies,
produced by the social media, it searches their ‘doubles’
in art history, making amazing random connections. It
discovered that the ‘Irises’ of Vincent van Gogh used the
same colour-chromatism palet as the ‘Waterlilies’ of Claude
Monet. Its algorithms classified 30.000 photographs of the
New York MOMA’s exhibition archives since 1929, all the
photographs of TIME magazine, etc. You can search them
with tags such as: love, sorrow, babies, etc. Google Cultural
Institute’s director Amit Sood declared that 1500 museums
and cultural institutions in 70 countries contribute images
(already 6.000.000) to it. The Google Art Camera takes
images in such high resolution that each brushstroke is
visible. It’s the closest one can get to the traditional ‘handson
experience’ of a connoisseur. Its Art & Culture website
produces cultural content in an organized way, gathering
huge social media impact. The cultural world of museums
and collectors is neither organized nor easy accessible,
Google is. Everybody can see the Grand Tour series, the
Horse race in Sienna or stories told by museum curators
about their institution’s works.
In the online art market, buyers want total transparency and
certainty, because the financial services industry looks at
art as an alternative asset class that requires data. Buyers
look for information, but also for expert opinions about the
artness of art and the way social media reflect the art world.
Artsy, claiming 24.000.000 visitors yearly, is a new power
player/matchmaker in the art market. It is a facilitator to
existing trusted brands such as Gagosian Gallery, providing
live-bidding technology. Live video capability is essential to
maintain the feeling of excitement in online auctions. 2.000
galleries around the world publish inventory and exhibition
lists on the site, driving $20 m of monthly sales. Last
year, Artsy acquired ArtAdvisor to lean more heavily on
personalized data to create actionable insights and to create
a better customer experience.
Boston based Invaluable.com, including a vast auction
price database, has monthly more than 5.000 sellers,
3.000.000 visitors and $3 bn in listed items. It acts as a
personal shopper across 5.000 auction houses, going trough
10.000 catalogues. Sales totaled $217 m last year. EBay
and Sotheby’s use Invaluable since 2015. The Dallas-based
Heritage Auctions is the market leader with $348,5 m in
sales last year (2016).
ArtAssistant, developed by the Belgian Alexander Tuteleers
is one single and secure online site for all actors in the
art world. It uses leading edge technology and AI on its
platform, such as Blockchain for transactions. Collectors
need an inventory of their collections. They follow their
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