World first: art by AI robot Ai-Da sells for $1.3 mln at auction

STORY: :: A painting by AI robot Ai-Da makes history by selling for $1.32 million at auction

:: Ai-Da, Artist robot

“My artwork is a portrait of Alan Turing, the brilliant British mathematician who laid the foundation for modern computing and artificial intelligence. The portrait has a fractured and layered quality, reflecting our current, fragmented and multifaceted worlds.”

:: It’s the first time an AI robot has had its work sold by a major auction house

:: Aidan Meller, Director of Ai-Da Robot Studio

“Well, there have been many artists called non artists, right from Matisse and Picasso and the like and they seem to have fared history pretty well by being called a non-artist. Is it art? Well, that’s up to the audience to decide. Our focus is an ethical arts project that explores the current beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The work, called ‘A.I. God,’ is a 7-foot-tall impressionistic portrait depicting the father of modern computing, Alan Turing. It had been anticipated to fetch between $120,000 – $180,000 (£100,000 – £150,000).

Ai-Da Robot, named after Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer, is the brainchild of Aidan Meller, who says she is intended to spark a conversation about how we interact with technology and artificial intelligence and said this is a significant moment.

“We are absolutely in that transitional point of going from a human world where humans make all the decisions to a post-human world, where the algorithms are starting to make all the decisions,” Meller told Reuters.

“I think actually to highlight that with the ultimate expression ‘A.I. God’ is a really good way of actually showing that significance as we transition.”

The process involved Ai-Da painting several small portraits of Alan Turing, which were then combined and scaled up onto a large canvas.

Studio Assistants then add a finish to the artwork by adding paint and texture. Finally, Ai-Da Robot paints on top of the canvas adding new marks and texture.

“Is it art? Well, that’s up to the audience to decide,” Meller said.

“Our focus is an ethical arts project that explores the current beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” he said.

Sotheby’s Digital Art Sale, which also featured contributions from generative artists like Xcopy, Pak, and Refik Anadol, was held online from October 31st to November 7th, 2024.

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