A portrait of English mathematician Alan Turing became the first artwork by a humanoid robot to be sold at auction, fetching $1,320,000 on Thursday.
“AI God”, a 2.2 m (7.5 ft) portrait of “Ai-Da”, the world’s first hyper-realistic robot artist, blew past pre-sale expectations of $180,000 after being sold at London auction house Sotheby’s digital art sale.
“Today’s record-breaking sale price for the first artwork by a humanoid robot artist to be auctioned marks a moment in the history of modern and contemporary art and reflects the growing interconnection between AI technology and the global art market,” the auction said. ” Home.
Ai-Da the robot, which uses AI to speak, said: “The main value of my work is its ability to serve as a catalyst for conversations about emerging technologies.”
Ai-Da said that “The portrait of pioneer Alan Turing invites viewers to contemplate the divine nature of AI and computing while considering the ethical and social implications of these advancements.”
One of the most advanced in the world, the hyper-realistic robot has been designed to resemble a human woman with a face, large eyes and a brown wig.
Ai-Da is named after Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer, and was created by Aidan Mellor, an expert in modern and contemporary art.
Mailer said, “The greatest artists in history struggled with their times and both celebrated and questioned changes in society.”
He said, “Ai-Da Robot is an ideal artist today to discuss current developments with technology and its emerging legacy.”
AI-Da generated the idea through conversations with studio members, and suggested creating an image of Turing during a discussion about “AI for Good”.
The robot was asked what style, color, material, tone and texture to use before looking at a photo of Turing and using cameras in its eyes to create the painting.
Mailer led the team that created AI-Da with artificial intelligence experts at the universities of Oxford and Birmingham in England.
Mailer said Turing, who made his name as a World War II codebreaker, mathematician and early computer scientist, had raised concerns about the use of AI in the 1950s.
The artwork’s “muted tone and broken faces” seem to reflect “the struggles Turing warned we would face when it came to managing AI”, he said.
AI-Da’s actions, he said, were “supernatural and haunting” and “raise the question of where the power of AI will take us, and the global race to harness its power”.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
