By the end of the month Sotheby’s hopes to make the first ever sale of a work of art created by a humanoid robot. Ai-Da, this is the name of the artificial painter, was trained to create a portrait of Alan Turing, a scientist and mathematician considered the progenitor of modern computing. The work will be offered to the public during an auction, which will open on October 31st, dubbed “digital art day”.
The painting, made in mixed media, has an estimated value of between 120 thousand and 180 thousand dollars. Ai-Da, presented as a woman, is a project created by British art dealer and gallerist Aidan Meller. The robot can draw and paint using cameras positioned in the eyes and using a robotic arm guided by artificial intelligence algorithms. ”
Many innovative projects are being developed and a huge number of robots are being perfected every day. They are robots that will all ultimately perform different tasks. Art is a way of dealing with the incredible changes that are taking place in society due to technology”, Meller told CBS specifying how the proceeds from the sale of Turing’s portrait will be reinvested in the Ai-Da project, the costs of which are particularly high.