Ai-Da, the humanoid robot artist, gears up for first solo exhibition

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Wearing a white blouse and her dark hair hanging loose, Ai-Da looks like any artist at work as she studies her subject and puts pencil to paper. But the beeping from her bionic arm gives her away – Ai-Da is a robot.

Described as "the world's first ultra-realistic AI humanoid robot artist," Ai-Da opens her first solo exhibition of eight drawings, 20 paintings, four sculptures and two video works next week, bringing "a new voice" to the art world, her British inventor and gallery owner Aidan Meller says.

Ai-Da, the AI humanoid robot artist, is pictured during a launch event of its first solo exhibition in Oxford on June 5, 2019. /VCG Photo

"The technological voice is the important one to focus on because it affects everybody," he told Reuters at a preview.

"We've got a very clear message we want to explore: the uses and abuses of AI today, because this next decade is coming in dramatically and we're concerned about that and we want to have ethical considerations in all of that."

Ai-Da the AI humanoid robot artist, draws a portrait of her creator Aidan Meller during a demonstration at a launch event for its first solo exhibition in Oxford on June 5, 2019. /VCG Photo

Named after British mathematician and computer pioneer Ada Lovelace, Ai-Da can draw from sight thanks to cameras in her eyeballs and AI algorithms created by scientists at the University of Oxford that help produce coordinates for her arm to create art.

She uses a pencil or pen for sketches, but the plan is for Ai-Da to paint and create pottery. Her paint works now are printed onto canvas with a human painting over.

An illustration by Ai-Da the AI humanoid robot artist described as depicting British Mathematician and code breaker Alan Turing is seen at a press conference at a launch event for its first solo exhibition in Oxford on June 5, 2019. /VCG Photo

"From those coordinates from the drawing we've been able to take that into an algorithm that is then able to output it through a Cartesian graph that then produces a final image," Meller said.

"It's a really exciting process never been done before in the way that we've done it...We don't know exactly how the drawings are going to turn out and that's really important."

On show at the "Unsecured Futures" exhibition are drawings paying tribute to Lovelace and mathematician Alan Turing, abstract paintings of trees, sculptures based on Ai-Da's drawings of a bee and video works, one of which, "Privacy" pays homage to Yoko Ono's 1965 "Cut Piece."

Gallery owner and creator Aidan Meller (L) talks to Ai-Da the AI humanoid robot artist (R) as it draws a portrait of him during a demonstration at a launch event for its first solo exhibition in Oxford on June 5, 2019. /VCG Photo

Ai-Da, whose construction was completed in April, has already seen her art snapped up.

"It's a sold out show with over a million pounds worth of artworks sold," Meller said.

An oil painting entitled "Bee-Shattered Space" created by other artists based on an illustration by Ai-Da the AI humanoid robot artist is seen in an exhibition space during a launch event for Ai-Da's first solo exhibition in Oxford on June 5, 2019. /VCG Photo

The exhibition, which opens on June 12 at the Barn Gallery at St John's College, looks at the boundaries between technology, AI and organic life.

Asked by Meller about "all the AI going on at the moment," Ai-Da, who has pre-programmed speech, replied: "New technologies bring the potential for good and evil. It is a great responsibility to try to curb excesses of negative use, something that we all must consider."

(Video edited by Ge Kai)

(Cover: Gallery director and inventor of Ai-Da the AI humanoid robot artist, Aidan Meller (R), poses with Ai-Da (L) and an oil-on-canvas painting created by other artists based on a sketch by Ai-Da during a launch event for its first solo exhibition in Oxford on June 5, 2019. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): Reuters