CNN
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An AI robot painting depicting British computer scientist and code breaker Alan Turing has sold for $1.08 million, making it the most valuable work of art by a humanoid robot ever to change hands at auction, and making it one of the most valuable works of art ever to change hands at auction. It has raised new questions about the role of artificial intelligence.
Sotheby’s, which handled the sale in New York, said the winning bid was well above the pre-auction estimate of $120,000 to $180,000, and the work received 27 bids before going to an undisclosed buyer.
The painting, titled “AI God: Portrait of Alan Turing,” was created by Ai-Da, a humanoid robot artist with a black bob and robotic arm who uses a large language model to communicate and It was invented by gallerist Aidan Mellor.
Turing’s research laid the foundation for early computer development and helped the Allies decipher German communications during World War II. He took his own life in 1954 after being convicted under homophobic Victorian-era laws and undergoing chemical castration.
Eighty years after Turing predicted the rise of computers and AI, Mellor hopes Ai-Da and its artwork can serve as “a kind of mirror of where we’re headed.”
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“It seems like a very timely time to think about the nascent reality of what’s actually going on in society,” he told CNN on Friday.
“We are entering a post-human world where decision-making is no longer human. Now that we know that decision-making is reliable, it is increasingly algorithmic… Ida’s artwork is “It really shows the potential future of where we can go,” he added.
The staggering amount of money that Ai-Da’s artwork sold for at auction signals a shift in the way AI art is viewed and valued in the art market, a change that Mellor attributes to the invention of the camera. I’m using an example.
“There’s a bit of an apocalyptic view that AI art will wipe out everyone. Cameras have really changed the art world… It feels similar, but it’s more than that… AI “The camera is just a physical representation of light, which makes it more singular because it can be done in different ways,” he said.
However, not everyone sees this as such a milestone. For Alastair Sooke, chief art critic at British newspaper The Telegraph, it’s “a very sophisticated, dressed-up version of a regular news story about a farm animal that is said to be able to paint like Pablo Picasso.” It’s nothing more than that.
Ai-Da was launched in 2019 after Mellor developed it in collaboration with a robotics company based in Cornwall, England.
“This is a question about what it means to be human, and it’s a bigger question than just art,” Mellor said. “I think Ida is a harbinger of where humans are going… So[she’s]very anxious about her very existence, but she’s just a symptom of what’s going on, and in fact… She’s not doing that. She’s just a symbol.”
At Ai-Da, before we create a work, we discuss what we want to draw with the creator. “We talked with her about AI for good, and she ended up bringing up Alan Turing as a key figure in the history of AI that she wanted to portray.” Mellor said in a statement.
After answering questions about the painting’s style, content, tone, and texture, Ai-Da put a camera in his eye, looked at a photo of Turing, and created a preliminary sketch of him. They then drew 15 separate drawings, each with a different part of Turing’s face, depending on how the algorithm interpreted the photos.
Each robot took about 6 to 8 hours to assemble, and then they were asked how to assemble it. In the end, three were chosen, along with a picture of Turing’s Bombe Machine (the name of Turing’s code-breaking device) that appears in the background.
Since Ai-Da’s arm can only be painted on a small canvas measuring 11.7 x 16.5 inches, the final image is printed onto a larger canvas using a 3D texture printer. Sotheby’s said the “fundamental image remains unchanged during this process.”
Ai-Da’s way of painting has changed since it was first founded, with the agency progressing “creeping…and upwards” and its techniques constantly being updated to remain at the cutting edge. Mellor said there is.
“A key value of my work is the ability to act as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies,” Ida said in a statement.
“A portrait of pioneer Alan Turing, AI God invites viewers to ponder the godlike nature of AI and computing while considering the ethical and social implications of these advances. “Alan Turing recognized this possibility and sees us running towards the future,” the robot added.
