An avant-garde lab nested in France's oldest university
Obvious Research is an academic laboratory within Sorbonne University. Its purpose is threefold :
Advance science by producing state of the art research in Generative AI
Provide revolutionary open-source tools to unleash the creativity of artists
Pursue the development of a new art form pioneered by OBVIOUS since 2017
A revolution in imagination
We are living through a revolution in imagination that already inspires artists & storytellers.
Our aim is to empower creatives by contributing to the emergence of a brand new form of media - that we believe to be as transformative as the invention of photography 200 years ago - through the development of text-to-video, mind-to-image and multimedia generative models. Our inspirations in the field are organizations such as Stability, Hugging Face and LAION.
Inspired by the Renaissance & the Enlightenment, we want to spark excitement for the future by setting foot on uncharted territories at the crossroads of arts and sciences. Artists imprint the directions of research, and research nourishes artistic practice in a positive feedback loop. We see technology as a fantastic means to leverage human capabilities.
Text-to-video
Our research on text to video models will enable the creation of complete videos, made of multiple and consistent shots, from text prompts. This approach represents an advancement compared to previous models that only allow shot by shot generation.
Mind-to-image
We experiment with models that reconstruct images from brain signals obtained through fMRI scans. Our approach involves combining the generative capabilities of multiple brains to create a single representative image.
Who we are
The laboratory is an initiative of the artists trio OBVIOUS, pioneers in the use of artificial intelligence as a creative tool. Its three members gained recognition through their works, such as the portrait of Edmond de Belamy - the first artwork created with AI to be sold at auction at Christie's, as well as numerous collaborations with Alpine, the Paris Opera, Nike, and the Tour de France equipment supplier Lapierre. Their work has been exhibited in prestigious galleries and museums around the world, including the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
The launch of the laboratory marks a new chapter in the collective's history, aiming to develop its own tools to make them accessible to creactives worldwide. It serves as a research laboratory at the Sorbonne, but also as a workshop open to collaborations with brands and artists, following the model of Renaissance workshops.
What we do
Open source
Our research is fully open-source, from datasets to model weights.
Research
We advance science by academic research and publications. We are not a corporate lab implementing already existing tools.
Art
We envision our research as leading to more creative tools, rather than more productive tools.
We create art and invite artists to create with us. We host events, exhibitions and other programs to enhance the creativity of artists, whether they usually work on traditional media or AI.
Collaborations
Like the workshops of the Renaissance, we take commissions from patrons, brands & institutions. We work on specific projects where we try to spark a sense of wonder about the world and to restore faith in progress.
What we don’t do
Artificial general intelligence
We are not seeking to build AGI, nor any form of superhuman intelligence. To us, AI is a tool that serves human needs.
Dystopia
Dystopian discourses have emerged as the prevailing future imaginaries. We aspire to challenge this logic and foster a new imaginative narrative that embraces an enthusiastic view of the future.
Technological progress at all cost
“Science without conscience is but ruin of the soul” said XVIth century author Rabelais. We live by this maxim.
AI = robots
AI does not necessarily need to be implemented in robots. We mainly build software tools.
Write to us
Please reach out if you think we could do something together : research.obvious@gmail.com
