Discover the world's first AI-generated statue

A statue generated by AI (artificial intelligence). Titled “The Impossible Statue,” the work came to life through a collaboration between The AI Framework, a consultancy, and Sandvik, an engineering company specializing in metal cutting, which pushed the project as a means of displaying its manufacturing programmed by computer.

Although this project is art-centric, the manufacturing methods involved in creating the Impossible Statue differed little from other tasks, said Nadine Crauwels, president of Sandvik Machining Solutions: “Using all of our resources, we can significantly improve manufacturing efficiency, reduce waste, and ensure the highest quality.”

The creation process
First, they trained AI models on the work of five sculptors, weaving Michelangelo's contrapposto, Rodin's musculature, Käthe Kollwitz's naturalism, Takamura Kotaro's movement (Rodin's great follower) and the boldness of Augusta Savage's figures. The Sandvik team essentially cherry-picked the most desirable attributes of some of the most famous sculptors of the last five centuries and then repeatedly generated images using a combination of Stable Diffusion, DALL-E and Midjourney until they were satisfied.

AI generated statue

The Impossible Statue. Photo courtesy of the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology.
The result is an androgynous figure composed of shifting tones of steel that holds a globe, which goes against the laws of gravity, and whose lower half is entangled in a corrugated sheet of metal. Are the invisible hands of the aforementioned sculptors evident? Somehow. The musculature is certainly bold and the fabric feels like a contemporary reworking of a Renaissance fixation. But again, the darker social commentary presented by Kollwitz and Savage's work seems absent in a statue full of promise.

After defining a design, Sandvik converted the 2D image into a 3D model using depth estimation and human pose estimation software, a computer task that identifies different parts of the human body in a scene. The company then thoroughly tested the manufacturing process in a series of digital simulations, halving the amount of steel used in the process. The statue produced was composed of nine million polygons, 17 separate pieces of steel, and differed from the digital drawing by less than 0.03 mm.

AI generated statue

Sandvik worker checking the accuracy of the statue. Photo courtesy of Sandvik.
“The Impossible Statue is a great example of what the combination of modern technology and human brilliance can create,” said Peter Skogh, director of the Museum of Science and Technology, in a statement. “Our mission is to create a broader understanding of the possibilities of technology and nurture the next generation. This project is ticking all the boxes for us.”