Artist-robot Ai-Da, a humanoid with artificial intelligence, will be the first of its kind to have a painting sold at a major auction house, organizers said Wednesday.
The work, to be auctioned at Sotheby's in London next month, is described as a "ghostly" portrait of English mathematician Alan Turing, considered one of the fathers of modern computing.
Entitled "God of Artificial Intelligence", the 2.2m-high portrait is expected to fetch between 100,000 and 150,000 pounds ($130,000 and $196,000).
According to Sotheby's, the online sale, featuring a range of digital art forms, will explore the intersection between art and technology.
The ultra-realistic robot is designed to resemble a human woman with a face, large eyes and a brown wig, and is one of the most sophisticated in the world.
It works using artificial intelligence algorithms and has cameras in its eyes and bionic arms.
Aidan Mellor, gallery owner and founder of the Ai-Da Robot studio, led the team that created it, along with artificial intelligence specialists from Oxford and Birmingham universities in England.
Mellor says Turing, who made a name for himself as a code-breaker during World War II, a mathematician and an early computer scientist, expressed concerns about the use of artificial intelligence in the 1950s.
The work's "muted tones and fractured facial planes" seemed to hint at "the difficulties Turing warned we would encounter when it came to managing AI," he said.
Ai-Da's works are "ethereal and compelling" and "continue to question where the power of AI and the global race to harness its power will lead us," he added.
In 2022. Ai-Da paints portraits of the performers who headline the Glastonbury Festival, including Billy Elish, Diana Ross, Kendrick Lamar and Paul McCartney.
Sotheby's digital art sale runs from October 31 to November 7. | BGNES
