Ai-Da robot sells artwork for $1 million

We’re living in the age of AI artists and AI art museums, so the fact that an AI-powered robot just made bank at an art auction shouldn’t come as a surprise. But we’re talking bank.

Ai-Da, the short-haired, realistic robot whose self-portraits and artworks are now the stuff of modern legend, has become the first humanoid robot to sell a work at auction (though it’s not the first AI-generated work sold at auction). Last Thursday, Ai-Da’s portrait of scientist, mathematician, and WWII Enigma code-breaker Alan Turing sold for a whopping $1.08 million at Sotheby’s.

Part of the auction house’s Digital Art Sale, the work titled AI God (first shown in May at the United Nations in Geneva during the AI for Good Global Summit) was estimated to sell between $120,000 and $180,000 and saw 27 bids before an anonymous buyer claimed victory.

Ai-Da, the world’s first artist robot who was created by Ai-Da Robot Studios director Aidan Meller and his team, has cameras for eyes, a robotic arm, and speaks using an AI language model — we’ve interviewed Ai-Da and can confirm, she loves a chat. Meller explained that Ai-Da picked Turing as a subject.

“We converse with Ai-Da, using her AI language model, about what she would like to paint,” said Meller in a press statement. “In this instance, we had a discussion with her about ‘AI for good’ which led to Ai-Da’ bringing up Alan Turing as a key person in the history of AI that she wanted to paint.”

Meller said the team then discussed stylistic choices with Ai-Da; what kind of texture, tone, and colour the piece would incorporate. The team showed Ai-Da a photograph of Turing to study, and the algorithm got to work making decisions.

“Ai-Da then uses the cameras in her eyes to look at a picture of Alan Turing alongside her AI drawing and painting algorithms and her robotic arm to create preliminary sketches followed by several paintings of Alan Turing,” Keller said.

Of course, Ai-Da also draws from existing art to inform the style of the piece. According to Sotheby’s, Ai-Da’s art “is inspired by Pablo Picasso’s Guernica and Doris Salcedo’s Atrabiliarios, works that portray human suffering through splintered, distorted aesthetics. In particular, Ai-Da’s fractured visual style, similar to Käthe Kollwitz and Edvard Munch, rejects pure representation, opting instead for a reflection of the technological and psychological fractures that characterize modern life.”

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Ai-Da’s infamous robot arm.
Credit: Ai-Da Robot Studios

For the finished work, Ai-Da completed a number of ink sketches of Turing using the robot arm before painting 15 separate A3-sized versions on Turing’s face, using up to 10 colours in both oil and acrylic paint, each taking six to eight hours. The team then asked Ai-Da how these paintings should be assembled.

“For AI God, Ai-Da chose three of the 15 portraits of Alan Turing, alongside a painting she had made of Alan Turing’s Bombe machine,” Meller explained. The Turing-Welchman Bombe machine was the device used by the team who broke the Enigma code at Bletchley Park during World War II.

“The painting of the Bombe machine can be seen in the background of the finished portrait — note the circular markings which are Ai-Da’s interpretation of the dials on the Bombe machine,” said Meller. “The three paintings of Alan Turing and the painting of the Bombe machine, all selected by Ai-Da, were then photographed and uploaded onto a computer where the final image was assembled based on a discussion with Ai-Da (using her language model) about what she wants the final artwork to look like.”

The three portraits Ai-Da chose.
Credit: Ai-Da Robot Studios

The final artwork that sold at auction was printed onto a giant canvas. But like many an artist over the centuries (from Michelangelo to Hirst), Ai-Da had the assistance of a studio — human assistants added additional texture. “This is because Ai-Da’s robotic painting arm is unable to stretch to a large scale canvas and is limited to A3 size canvas,” said Meller. “There is no change to the underlying image in this process. Ai-Da then adds marks and texture onto the final canvas in order to complete the artwork. The positioning and colour of these marks are decided by Ai-Da based on having a conversation about what she wants to do.”

It’s not the first time Ai-Da’s work in the arts has made headlines. In 2022, Ai-Da’s solo show “Leaping into the Metaverse” ran during the Venice Biennale, and Ai-Da has exhibited at the London Design Biennale, London Design Festival, the Ashmolean Museum, the V&A, Tate Modern, and has held multiple artist residencies. Ai-Da painted the Queen and the 2022 Glastonbury headliners including Sir Paul McCartney, Diana Ross, Kendrick Lamar, and Billie Eilish. So this kind of press is all in a day’s work for the AI artist.

Of course, Ai-Da provided a press statement for AI God:

“The key value of my work is its capacity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies. AI God, a portrait of pioneer Alan Turing, invites viewers to reflect on the god-like nature of AI and computing while considering the ethical and societal implications of these advancements. Alan Turing recognised this potential, and stares at us, as we race towards this future.”

Ai-Da and “AI God.”
Credit: Ai-Da Robot Studios

AI-generated art has become a touchy subject area, with platforms like Midjourney, DALL-E, Gemini, Stable Diffusion, and others creating controversies over everything from misinformation to historical inaccuracies, copyright infringement, and job threat. But the first AI-generated art dates back to the ’70s — and interest from the art industry, researchers, and the public alike in AI artists has been undeniably increasing over the last few years.

In 2019, AICAN, a nearly autonomous AI artist, showed its first exhibition to a packed gallery in Chelsea. Today, a 20,000 square foot museum of AI-generated art is about to open in Los Angeles.

In 2018, Christie’s became the first auction house to offer art created by an algorithm, selling the AI-created Edmond de Belamy, from La Famille de Belamy for $432,500. Today, Ai-Da’s million-dollar pay day proves AI artists aren’t going anywhere, and neither are their buyers.