I like the concept of The Grid using AI to automate web design:

In his article Why Web Design is Dead, Latin American designer Sergio Nouvel explained the death of web design from the evolution of “high quality templates, mature design patterns, automation, and AI (…).” His conclusion, as I understood it, assured the continued existence of experience design because cohesively defining the experience comes from deliberate conceptualization. I agree with his view, as it seems we cannot automate the process of imagining what we want to experience.

Homing in on automation and AI, there are two recent examples that substantiate that we’re heading toward having a layer of automation to remove a facet of design labor: visual layout. The pleasing harmony of structural elements, supporting elements, their positioning, their dimensions, their alignment, their hierarchy, their context and their color palette, all have long been the distinction of the skilled designer who brings the human intangible of aesthetic.

Or is it the reverse? Maybe it is not us who create an aesthetic, but instead evolution has conditioned us to mimic nature’s patterns: symmetry, ratios, shapes and colors. If this is true, then through defined parameters, AI could learn these patterns and, as a designer would, explore design possibilities until user responses confirm a satisfying resting point.

A San Francisco startup, The Grid, offers “websites that design themselves,” with their AI-driven layouts that organize and evolve the display of content by analyzing media, even adjusting color palettes and typography. Basically, their AI is making the decisions of a visual designer. However, a human learns to make decisions from purpose, passion, dedication and education. The Grid’s layout engine has alleviated a significant portion of the design labor, but the main ingredient of the outcome is still human: enjoyment and emotion

The return of the machinery question:

http://pandawhale.com/post/72397/the-return-of-the-machinery-question-by-the-economist

I learned the GSS language that The Grid people made to make their product work.  It's awesome. 

Is it an open standard or something owned by The Grid?

I believe GSS is an open standard, but their higher-level things build on it are proprietary.  I'd have to double check that.