A painting by Ai-Da Robot, a humanoid robot powered using artificial intelligence (AI), sold for more than $1m (including auction house fees) at Sotheby’s New York on Thursday (7 November). The painting is the most valuable artwork ever sold by a robot artist, according to the auction house, driven up by 27 bids.
Due to a miscalculation, Sotheby’s initially reported the sale soaring to $1.3m. Still, even the $1m figure is more than five times the high end of the painting’s $120,000 to $180,000 estimate.
The painting A.I. God. Portrait of Alan Turing (2024) depicts Alan Turing, the English mathematician and Second World War cryptanalyst who is remembered as a pioneer of AI and computer science. The work was displayed earlier this year at a United Nations global summit on AI in Geneva.
Ai-Da Robot was developed by a team led by Oxford gallerist Aidan Meller. Ai-Da is able to paint and draw using cameras in its eyes and robotic arms.
“I do not have subjective experiences; I am dependent on computer programmes … although I’m not alive, I can still create art,” the robot told members of the Communications and Digital committee during a 2022 speech at the House of Lords in the UK.
Meller has said that his share of the proceeds will be reinvested back into the Ai-Da project. Ai-Da will be interviewed about the auction at the Courtauld Institute in London on 14 November.