An AI robot's portrait of Alan Turing made history after being auctioned for $1M

The world's first auctioned painting by a robot is a 2.2 meter (7.5 feet) portrait of Alan Turing, titled A.I. God. Portrait of Alan Turing, and created by Ai-Da, the world's first ultra-realistic robot artist. It sold for $1.08 million at Sotheby's, far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of $120,000-$180,000. Sotheby's has since confirmed that the painting attracted 27 bids before being sold to an undisclosed buyer. —

Ai-Da, the humanoid robot powered by AI and named after Ada Lovelace, who is considered the world’s first computer programmer, was developed by a team led by modern and contemporary art specialist Aidan Meller and comprised of artificial intelligence specialists at the universities of Oxford and Birmingham. Ai-Da can have voice conversations with people, and cameras in its 'eyes' enable it to 'see' the world.

Ai-Da generates ideas for its artworks by having conversations with its creators. Reportedly, the idea to create a portrait of Alan Turing emerged during a discussion about "AI for good". After being asked about details such as the style, color, content, tone, and texture it would use for its painting, Ai-Da looked at a picture of Turing using the cameras in its eyes before starting the painting. The artwork's muted tones and fragmented facial composition reportedly reflect Turing's own warnings about AI's future challenges.