Sotheby's auctions AI work This painting from a robot hand costs at least 120,000 dollars
On October 31, the London auction house is auctioning a painting by the humanoid robot lady Ai-Da. The painting could be auctioned for between 120,000 and 180,000 dollars, say those responsible.
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- Ai-Da is a robot with the face of a woman who paints pictures.
- For the first time, the London auction house is auctioning a painting that was not created by a human: "A. I. God. Portrait of Alan Turing (2024)" by Ai-Da.
- The painting for sale depicts Alan Turing, a British mathematician who is considered the father of artificial intelligence.
- Sotheby's expects the painting to sell for between 120,000 and 180,000 dollars.
Ai-Da is wearing a pageboy cut and denim dungarees. Her appearance is fit for an art studio, all that is missing are paint-stained hands. However, Ai-Da's arms look more like a Terminator than Frida Kahlo or Georgia O'Keeffe.
The people behind the painting robot lady Ai-Da have not just built and programmed a machine that creates art that at least laypeople cannot distinguish from that made by human hands. Ai-Da should obviously also be perceived as a personality, albeit a virtual one.
And so Ai-Da also gives interviews and explains to a CNN reporter, for example, that the value of her work lies in the fact that it can serve as a catalyst for dialog on newly emerging capacities. With a sharp look, she adds: "If that's not a value, then I don't know what is."
Behind Ai-Da is the English gallery owner Aidan Meller. He explains that her art sheds light on society's relationship with technology. Art has long represented social change. So the painting machine itself is to be seen as a work of art and not just her paintings.
At least 120,000 dollars for the robot's work
The first auction of a work created by an artificial intelligence application will show how the art market reacts to this new category of creative work.
The London auction house Sotheby's estimates the value of the painting "A. I. God. Portrait of Alan Turing (2024)" to between 120,000 and 180,000 dollars. The gallery also accepts cryptocurrencies, writes CNN.
The painting will go under the hammer on October 31. It is not known whether it is a coincidence that the painting of some real artists' nightmares is being auctioned on the day of Halloween.
Painting with an explosive motif
The painting is a portrait of Alan Turing. The British mathematician's research is considered one of the foundations of artificial intelligence, or more precisely, the algorithms on which it is based. Some also refer to him as the father of computer science and the computer.
With Turing, Ai-Da has also chosen a person as a motif who was both admired and at the same time reviled. He was revered as a hero after he made a significant contribution to cracking the encryption of the Wehrmacht's radio transmissions during the Second World War. He was subsequently prosecuted because he was homosexual, which was illegal in Great Britain at the time. He committed suicide in 1954.
Whether and how Ai-Da deals with the criticism of her existence and work, which is sure to continue for some time, depends on what personality traits the programmers have given her.