When AI Raises the Dead

A few weeks ago, the Musée d'Orsay closed a record-breaking exhibit on Vincent van Gogh's final months, including an AI van Gogh. Should we allow artificial intelligence to speak for the deceased?

The Drinkers, Vincent van Gogh ca. 1890. This ghostly scene was produced in the final year of van Gogh’s life. Via the Art Institute of Chicago.

If you could come face to face with Vincent van Gogh, what would you ask him?

Over the past few months, the Musée d’Orsay addressed this very question in their record-breaking exhibit, “Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise, the Final Months.” After the exhibit officially closed a few weeks ago, the museum released attendance numbers, and the results are staggering: 793,556 people visited the exhibit, with a daily average of 7,181 visitors.

A major part of the draw, no doubt, is how beloved van Gogh’s work remains. The largely self-taught artist’s expressive style and bold, vivid colors are instantly recognizable. (It should be noted that the vibrant style for which he is best known would develop after his arrival in Paris in 1886; works painted prior to this period often possessed more somber hues.) In just ten years of working as an artist, he created n…