PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Harold Cohen

Harold Cohen was a British painter and AI researcher who used AARON to explore computer-generated drawing and painting. He studied at London's Slade School of Fine Art, earned a diploma in 1951, and joined UC San Diego's Visual Arts Department in 1968. At Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, he began AARON in 1972; the program grew from rule-based drawings to images it could color. At UC San Diego, he served as chair of the Visual Arts Department and director of the Centre for Research in Computing and the Arts, retired in 1994, and received ACM SIGGRAPH's Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2014. He published an account of AARON's latest iteration in February 2016 and died in April 2016.

Timeline

  1. 1951

    A Slade art diploma

    After studying painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, he earns a diploma in 1951, spends a fellowship year in Rome, and teaches at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts.

  2. 1968

    Joining UC San Diego

    In 1968, he joins UC San Diego's Visual Arts Department.

  3. 1971–1973

    Developing AARON at Stanford

    In 1971, he receives an invitation to spend two years as a Guest Scholar at Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He begins AARON there in 1972, an AI system for artmaking whose early version uses rules and forms to compose drawings.

  4. 1980s–1995

    AARON's color output

    AARON's visual vocabulary expands during the 1980s to include rocks, plants, and people; color enters its output in the 1990s. In 1995, he debuts a version that draws and colors its forms.

  5. 1994

    UCSD department chair

    At UC San Diego, he serves as chair of the Visual Arts Department and director of the Centre for Research in Computing and the Arts. He retires in 1994 and continues developing AARON.

  6. 2014

    A SIGGRAPH lifetime award

    In 2014, he receives the ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement.

  7. 2016

    Fingerpainting for the 21st Century

    In February 2016, he publishes Fingerpainting for the 21st Century, which describes AARON's latest iteration. He dies at age 87 on April 27, 2016.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Harold Cohen yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Harold Cohen obituary | Computing | The Guardian theguardian.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Harold Cohen visarts.ucsd.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Harold Cohen: AARON | Whitney Museum of American Art whitney.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Harold Cohen and AARON—A 40-Year Collaboration - CHM computerhistory.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Harold Cohen - Biography | Gazelli Art House gazelliarthouse.com. Checked 19 October 2026.