On this website, we have already described several times how broadly understood artificial intelligence is able to influence the so-called creative industries. On the one hand, it is perceived as a great opportunity for enterprises and producers. On the other hand, we are talking about something that may pose a very serious threat to some professions.
However, such topics are usually perceived through the prism of programs, tools, or software elements. For this reason, we treat AI very impersonally and it is easier for us to understand that works made in this way are devoid of a certain “spirit”. The problem arises when we start to identify specific works with certain – not necessarily human – entities.
An example of this would be Ai-Da, a humanoid robot powered by AI. The creation made by one of the engineers turned out to be very artistically “talented”, and his works are sold for considerable sums. What exactly is this machine?
Ai-Da, a humanoid robot artist
Ai-Da is a robot created by gallerist Aidan Meller in 2019, as an example of what the so-called AI-based art generators. To create the machine, Meller cooperated with Engineered Arts and the University of Oxford. Interestingly, it was the above-mentioned university that was responsible for developing the algorithms responsible for manual skills. All of this, of course, is powered by artificial intelligence, which is responsible for what can be called “creative visions.”
As an author, Ai-Da is able to paint, sketch, and design sculptures. Moreover, this robot is supposed to be able to create poetry based on the analysis of speech patterns and its internal vocabulary. So we are talking about a quite versatile “artist” who is not afraid of almost any field of art.
Starting from 2019, Ai-Da appeared very often at all kinds of cultural events. In 2022, he also appeared in the UK House of Lords, where he gave “testimony” to an inquiry related to the challenges facing the creative industries in the face of the development of AI. Whichever way you look at it, Ai-Da is a pioneer in many respects, and at the same time a very profitable project.
Ai-Da is a sought-after and quite expensive artist
It turns out that one of Ai-Dy’s last works depicting the British computer scientist and mathematician – Alan Turing – was sold for exactly $1.32 million. It is therefore the most valuable work created by a humanoid robot that has ever been auctioned. So this is another uncompromising event that is entirely thanks to Ai-Da.
It is also worth taking into account that the sales price significantly exceeded the initial estimates. They assumed that the painting would be purchased for approximately PLN 120,000-180,000. dollars. Unfortunately, the name of the buyer of the work has not been made public.
And how was such a work created? Initially, Ai-Da looked at Turing’s photo using special cameras. The robot then moved on to creating sketches and finally painted 15 individual images of the scientist. What is very important, each of them showed only part of the face, and all the paintings were different from each other and were created on a small canvas measuring 11.7 × 16.5 inches.
Finally, the robot selected three images, which were finally combined and printed on a larger canvas using a 3D printer. Thanks to this, it was possible to create a work so that it resembled the robot’s original creations as best as possible.
The future of art under the sign of robots and AI?
The case of Ai-Dy is truly unique because it shows that it is possible to develop a robot based on language models that can create art. Even if we are talking about a very specific and perhaps even disturbing work, it is still something that can be considered art.
The creator of the robot himself sees technology as the further development of art. He compares AI and artificial intelligence to the invention of the camera. The difference, however, is that AI has many more applications than photography.
Is there really a future in which robots will dictate the further development of art? It’s hard to say, but it is certain that many artists cannot be easily replaced by machines. Is it right? This is a question that each of us must ask ourselves.
