If you think the headline sounds absurd, wait till you learn that this artificially-intelligent art-making robot, named Ai-Da, has, as of June 7, made over $1.2 million in sales of art. Believe it. This is not quite a dystopia future now like the teaser video’s overall ambience may have implied, though. It just makes us question, who or what makes the art?
Is it the person behind Ai-Da or was it really the robot? Does a robot that lacks the ability to form its own opinions is able to create art? I mean, what Ai-Da is capable now is the result of humans’ creation. Mankind gave it logic (algorithms) to work on and as such, can we really consider the art Ai-Da created truly belongs to it, or the roboticists? God. I have so many questions!
Anywho, Ai-Da recently held her first solo exhibition, Unsecured Future, at the University of Oxford’s Barn Gallery which runs from June 12 through to July 6, 2019. At this point, images of Altered Carbon flashes in my head. I don’t know why. Overly futuristic, I guess? Ai-Da was co-created by British inventor/gallerist Aidan Meller and roboticists at Oxford. The latter was the team responsible for bringing Ai-Da to life with tech like cameras for its eyes and artificial intelligence algorithms.
As a humanoid, Ai-Da is very human-like and apparently, it speaks too. Although it is not clear if it is capable to converse with an actual human, or it only knows how to draw/paint. Speaking of draw/paint, the artworks that it did is not entirely her work per se. We understand that Ai-Da draws using a pen or pencil, after which the works are transferred to canvas via printing and then painted by a human. It is not clear who was the collaborating human or humans, though.
This method of art creation is just a start. In future, Ai-Da will be able to paint autonomously and perhaps, even move on to another disciplines like pottery. According to its creator, Ai-Da’s first solo exhibition was a sell out with “over a million pounds worth of artwork sold.” So, to whom the money goes too? Well, we can only imagine. Unlikely Ai-Da will be the beneficiary, will it? Now you see how SkyNet will eventually evolve to hate humans?
Images: Ai-DaRobot.com.
Source: Artsy.
