I.

https://www.artblocks.io/collection/i.-by-ryley-o.eth

An on-chain neural network generating expressions.

I’ve had this itch for years to see if I could build an generative AI model that was small enough to be economically uploaded to Layer 1 Ethereum, that produced compelling outputs.

I., my Art Blocks Studio generative art release, is the culmination of many nights of tinkering with what is possible, what is compelling, and trying to understand why it was such a brain worm for me.

update: @LifeOnChain_NFT uploaded a InChainPepeGAN that executes in Solidity and produces 5×5 pixel outputs in 2023, so massive shoutout to them! I didn’t know about their work until after releasing this project, and it’s definitely worth learning about what they did in their blog post.

Initial Exploration

Initially, I explored various conditional variational autoencoder (cVAE) architectures with the simple goal of reproducing images using a very thin and compact model structure. I took several photographs around my house, and distinctly remember my happiness when I was able to reproduce a picture of one of my cows!

I continued exploring various models and architectures, eventually finding myself most interested in the model’s ability to interpolate and mix different emotions. I took many selfies making various expressions to determine what the model was capable of given it’s extreme architecture limits. I wanted it to be less than about 400 kb to be economically uploaded to the blockchain using Art Blocks BytecodeStorage library.

After successfully reproducing and interpolating blurry images of myself making goofy faces at my iphone’s camera, I felt like I was onto something, but felt that my selfies weren’t communicating anything artistically interesting.

I put the project on the shelf, but the brain worm of figuring out what it was supposed to be remained.

Enter: AI

Throughout 2024 and early 2025, I experienced the onslaught of AI entering nearly all areas of my productive life. Chat GPT largely replaced Google for answering complex questions. Claude 3.5 Agent could produce code for me in a pinch that wasn’t terrible, sometimes even impressive. Everyone everywhere was talking about AI.

Despite the amazing benefits that AI models were bringing to me, I’ve always had a feeling of dread when considering what it may eventually be capable of. Artists and designers are being replaced every day by generative AI; as the models continue improving, what other professions will be replaced by the machines?

What about the most cherished part of us; what about our humanity? Will AI eventually try and replace our deepest connections with each other?

Eyes are a Window into the Soul

These deep, profound questions brought me to an epiphany – my little blockchain AI model needed to be EYES! An AI model attempting to synthetically reproduce the feeling of connection when staring into someone’s eyes. This was it.

The project was pulled back off the shelf.

LLM Agents helped me introduce more power to the model, including hybridizing it with a GAN, using AI’s help to tell if AI’s output looked “real” or “fake”. AI-generated images of eyes were used as the training material.

It’s all AI generated. At my precise instructions.

diy: https://github.com/ryley-o/I_cVAEGAN

https://www.artblocks.io/collection/i.-by-ryley-o.eth