We're on the edge of a new frontier in art and creativity -- and it's not human. Blaise Agüera y Arcas, principal scientist at Google, works with deep neural networks for machine perception and distributed learning. In this captivating demo, he shows how neural nets trained to recognize images can be run in reverse, to generate them. The results: spectacular, hallucinatory collages (and poems!) that defy categorization. "Perception and creativity are very intimately connected," Agüera y Arcas says. "Any creature, any being that is able to do perceptual acts is also able to create."

Blaise Agüera y Arcas: How computers are learning to be creative

How computers are learning to be creative

Neural networks, once trained to recognize, can be reversed to create, blurring lines between perception and creativity.

Neural networks, trained to recognize images, can also generate them, revealing a deep link between perception and creativity.

Exploring brain function through art, neural nets synthesize new images, advancing our understanding of creativity and perception.