After seeing how misguided this AI was in its analysis of Pikachu sketches, we had to give it a go ourselves.

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, surrounds us every day: there are AI in our smart phones to help us navigate, research and time things, AI powers security cameras and grocery store checkouts. But there’s something slightly dystopic about the advances of AI too – with the subtle implication that one day they could be skilled enough to take the jobs of news reporters, professional singers and even anime character designers.

That last one raises an interesting point: for art to exist as art, you need art criticism. Can an AI discern between good and bad art? That’s the question posed by Japanese website CanvaSketch which provides a variety of silly, for-fun prompts like “draw a circle and learn your true personality” or “we can tell your sex by how you write this kanji”.

But one of their tests has been gaining traction on Twitter lately, and not for its accuracy. Twitter user @BikkuriMoon shared this puzzled, slightly beseeching message:

▼ “Why”

In each of the four pictures, we can see @BikkuriMoon’s beautiful art work of “Pikachu” along with CanvaSmart’s analysis. The image is rated in terms of “Pikachu-ness”, “Cuteness” and “Goodness of Character”, each ranked out of 100. The totals are combined for a score out of 300 beneath that.

Their first Pikachu illustration is cute, full of personality and instantly recognizable as Pikachu…right? Wrong, yells CanvaSketch, awarding it a devastating one point for Pikachu-ness, five for cuteness and seventeen for personality. Ouch! The second and third attempts don’t fare much better, with @BikkuriMoon’s highest aggregate score coming in at a paltry 100/300.

So perhaps in frustration, they chose to draw Kamen Rider Black RX instead. And CanvaSketch’s judgement was absolute:

Pikachu-ness: 97/100
Cuteness: 83/100
Goodness of Character: 53/100

Total score: 233/300

Wait, what?!

Commenters were delighted at this awkward turn of events, spamming Kamen Rider memes and combining memorable quotes. Admittedly, the concept of Pikachu booming “I am the child of the sun! Pikachu Rider!” is pretty great, not to mention the obvious Pikachu evolves into Kamen Raichu puns.

Other users were inspired to try their own “Pikachu” art out for evaluation, on CanvaSketch’s “check your artistic skill” feature:

▼ “Pikachu” was the prompt here too.

12 points for Pikachu…and 95 for a censored character that possibly might belong to Disney.

Inspired by all this artistic evaluation, I decided to brush off my own artistic skills and see if I could convince CanvaSketch to recognize my Pikachu. And I went all out! I used color, showered him in electric sparks and even tried to draw his body (making sure to keep him a little plump, because fat Pikachu is the truest representation of the form in my opinion.)

▼ My Pikachu, by K Kelly, 29 years old.

I clicked the button below to let CanvaSketch analyze my art…and…

▼ Not bad!

While I only scored 41 on Pikachu-ness, cuteness was at 73 (thank you, CanvaSketch, you’re too kind) and even my character wasn’t judged too harshly at 32. Hardly the results of a Pokémon master, but definitely not some paltry pre-schooler from Pallet Town!

Out of curiosity, and considering the high rankings afforded by both Mickey Mouse and Kamen Rider Black RX, I tried to draw something I personally consider the absolute opposite of Pikachu: Stewie Griffin from Family Guy.

Ah. Cuteness way down, at 13, but Pikachu-ness took a boost: a powerful 65. Interestingly, despite Stewie’s comparatively unwholesome nature he scored fabulously on Goodness of Character: a respectable 61. Hmm.

Personally, I’d love to see how the artist responsible for the frightening Pikachu skeleton would score on this extremely finicky application; or one of the crinkly adorable Wrinkle-chu fanarts that spawned from Detective Pikachu.

While AI might not be taking over for the experts at the Louvre yet, it’s definitely a fun way to kill some time – try doodling your own Pikachus and see how well they score!

Images © SoraNews24
Source: Twitter/@BikkuriMoon via My Game News Flash
Related: CanvaSketch – Analyse Your Pikachu (enter your name and click “START” to get drawing.)
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