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Ai-Da’s portrait features Alan Turing, a pioneering computer scientist and an early figure in AI research.
Sotheby’s
An upcoming Sotheby’s auction will feature a rare portrait of a surprising new artist: a robot named Ai-Da, who creates paintings while wearing a chic brunette bob and overalls.
Her piece, AI God. Portrait of Alan Turingwill be the first artwork of a humanoid robot ever sold by the auction house. Aidan Mellerwhich Ai-Da created with a team of scientists from the University of Oxford, thinks the sale will provide an interesting commentary on the role of technology in art.
“[Robots] will ultimately perform all kinds of different tasks,” says Meller CBS Money Watch‘s Megan Cerullo. “Art is a way to discuss the incredible changes in society that are happening as a result of technology.”
Ai-Da uses artificial intelligence – along with robotic arms and cameras in her eyes – to speak, move and paint. Her new abstract portrait shows Alan Turing, the famous English mathematician and cryptanalyst from World War II, who was also one of the earliest figures to contribute to the field of AI
“I’m intrigued to see my art, AI God, at Sotheby’s,” Ai-Da says in a video from the auction house. “My artwork uses a fragmented and layered approach, and this reveals the deeper emotional and intellectual layers of Alan Turing himself.”
The mathematician, known as the father of modern computer science, is best known for cracking Nazi codes during World War II. In 1952 he was charged with “gross indecency” when he admitted having a sexual relationship with a man. Turing died two years later of what officials said was suicide.
Ai-Da’s painting is titled AI God. Portrait of Alan Turing. Sotheby’s/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/b8/97/b897ab0b-7f04-42d4-9a1d-b21ce27cf03f/aida.jpeg)
‘In the 1950s, Alan Turing concerns expressed about the use of AI,” Meller said in a statement. “Ai-Da’s portrait is eerily reminiscent of Alan Turing, using muted tones and broken facial planes, and a background of shadowy shapes of the Bombe machine. The artwork seemingly suggests the problems Turing warned we will face when it comes to managing AI.”
The Turing portrait is part of a five-panel polyptych that was shown earlier this year at a United Nations global summit on AI in Geneva. It will be auctioned on October 31 as part of Sotheby’s digital art salewhere it is estimated to fetch between $120,000 and $180,000. The proceeds go to the further development of Ai-Da.
Ai-Da was founded in early 2019. Since then, the robot artist’s work has been featured in exhibitions around the world. She can speak at length about the intersection of art and technology: in 2022 she became the first robot to appear before the British Parliament, where she questions answered of the House of Lords Communications and Digital Commission.
“I don’t have any subjective experiences, even though I can talk about them,” Ai-Da told the committee members. “I am and am dependent on computer programs and algorithms. Even though I’m no longer alive, I can still make art.”
Meller says CNN‘s Anna Stewart says Ai-Da’s work directly addresses larger questions about AI’s emerging influence on art.
“If you look at the past, all the greatest artists are the ones who really resonate with the changes and shifts in society and explore them through their artwork,” he says. “So what better way to do that than… actually having the artwork produced by a machine.”
