First Artwork By Humanoid Robot Sells For Over $1 Million

A remarkable event took place where a portrait of the famous English mathematician Alan Turing was sold at auction for over $1 million. This artwork, titled "A.I. God," was created by a humanoid robot named Ai-Da, noted as the world's first ultra-realistic robot artist.

The portrait measures 2.2 meters (7.5 feet) and fetched an astonishing $1,084,800 at the Sotheby's Digital Art Sale. This amount clearly exceeded the pre-sale expectations of $180,000.

Sotheby’s auction house highlighted that this record-breaking sale marks a significant moment in modern and contemporary art history, showcasing the increasing blend of artificial intelligence technology with the global art market.

Ai-Da Robot, which employs AI technology to communicate, stated, "The key value of my work is its capacity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies." The robot elaborated that features of Turing's portrait urge viewers to think about the god-like characteristics of AI and computing, as well as the ethical and societal questions these advancements bring.

This ultra-realistic robot is designed to look like a human woman, complete with facial features, large eyes, and a brown wig. Ai-Da is named after Ada Lovelace, who is recognized as the world's first computer programmer, and was created by Aidan Meller. Meller specializes in modern and contemporary art.

According to Meller, "The greatest artists in history grappled with their period of time, both celebrating and questioning societal changes." He believes Ai-Da, as a technology, is the ideal artist to address current technological developments and their implications.

Ai-Da develops ideas through discussions with studio members and suggested creating Turing's portrait during a conversation about "A.I. for good." The robot was then prompted about the style, color, content, tone, and texture to use for the painting. Using cameras in its eyes, Ai-Da examined an image of Turing to produce the portrait.

Meller collaborated with artificial intelligence specialists from the universities of Oxford and Birmingham to bring Ai-Da into existence. Turing, recognized for his contributions as a World War II codebreaker and an early computer scientist, had previously expressed concerns about AI as early as the 1950s.

The artwork itself features "muted tones and broken facial planes," which Meller suggests symbolize the challenges Turing warned we would encounter while dealing with AI. He described Ai-Da's creations as "ethereal and haunting," prompting discussions about where AI's power might take humanity, along with the global race to control it.

artwork, humanoid, auction