The portrait of British mathematician Alan Turing has become the first artwork created by a robot to be auctioned, fetching a price of $1.32 million on November 7.
The 2.2-meter tall portrait, titled “The God of AI”, was created by Ai-Da, the world’s first hyper-realistic robot artist, and far exceeded the initial valuation of $180,000 at Sotheby’s Digital Art auction in London.
Robot Ai-Da beside the painting it created. (Photo: ai-darobot.com).
Sotheby’s stated that this record price marks a milestone in the history of modern and contemporary art, reflecting the increasingly deep intersection between artificial intelligence (AI) and the global art market.
Robot Ai-Da, which uses AI for communication, shared that the core value of its work is the ability to foster dialogue about emerging technologies. Ai-Da further remarked that the portrait of Alan Turing invites viewers to reflect on the divine nature of AI and computing while considering the ethical and societal implications of these advancements.
This hyper-realistic robot is among the most advanced robots in the world, designed with a female face, large eyes, and brown synthetic hair. Ai-Da is named after Ada Lovelace – the world’s first computer programmer. Ai-Da is the creation of Aidan Meller, an expert in modern and contemporary art.
Mr. Meller noted that great artists throughout history have always been concerned with their era, both celebrating and questioning societal changes. Robot Ai-Da, as a technology, is the perfect artist to discuss current technological developments and the legacy being formed.
Ai-Da developed the concept through conversations with its collaborators and proposed creating an image of Turing during a discussion about “AI for Good.” The robot was then asked about the style, colors, content, tone, and texture to be used, and used its eye camera to view images of Turing and create the portrait.
Expert Meller leads the team that created Ai-Da alongside AI specialists from the University of Oxford and the University of Birmingham in the UK. He noted that mathematician Turing expressed concerns about the use of AI as early as the 1950s.
According to Mr. Meller, the dark tones and fragmented facial features in the artwork seem to suggest the challenges Turing warned we would face in managing AI. He also emphasized that Ai-Da’s works are “hyper-realistic and haunting,” continuing to question where the power of AI will lead us.
