Google AI Turns BAYC NFTs into Art Pieces 

Even if you’re not particularly interested in NFTs, you probably recognize pieces from the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The NFTs, which feature uninterested-looking apes, are some of the most famous in the world, appearing in blockchain-focused circles and even on custom Rolling Stone covers. 

Now, their image has been used in yet another interesting way as Google Cloud Neural Networks’ AI has successfully turned all 10,000 Bored Ape pieces into works of art. This new project, called Artsy Monke, shows off the capabilities of the AI’s functionality while also referring to one of NFTs’ most beloved collections. 

AI Art 

According to a statement, this artwork is a result of advancements in both AI and image diffusion techniques. It also used Google’s collaborative Notebook platform Colab, and its Cloud Computing service. To create the artworks, the AI was given some Bored Ape NFTs to act as a loose template but was also able to create the images using only text descriptions. 

“We were able to take all ten thousand Bored Ape NFT images, and feed those into the machine as a loose canvas within which to frame the generative art […]”After that, it was a matter of teaching the machine to paint in the twenty different art styles we shortlisted, and then running multiple servers for several weeks to get the results we wanted,” says CryptoGrims, Artsy Monke’s in-house AI artist.

The result of this was 10,000 artworks that might look abstract on the surface but take the shape of an Ape not dissimilar to the Bored Ape NFTs they are partially based on. All the pieces quickly sold out, with resells popping up on Opensea. But this isn’t the only NFT project that Google’s AI will be involved in. 

Reportedly, there are plans for Artsy Monkeland, a metaverse theme park that only holders of one of the 10,000 NFTs from the original collection can access. Once they do access this theme park, they can enjoy play-to-earn games.

Apparently, this was the plan from the start to make the NFTs not only a collectable but a utility item as well. 

“We wanted Artsy Monke to be pieces of art that you could hang on your wall, but also, by using Web3 technology, we can also let holders access the Artsy Monke games and earn real money. The more Monke NFT you hold, the more games you can play and the more money you can earn,” the team says.

Find Your Bored Ape

This new project highlights both the progress that has been made with artificial intelligence and the creativity of the NFT space. It is also quite telling that the NFTs were designed to act as passes into a virtual theme park and not just collectables.

This shows that even while we want NFT collectables, there is a growing demand for more utilitarian ones and clearly, this demand is going to be met. Hopefully, the Monkeland theme park is launched soon and lives up to the hype.