Ai-Da, claimed as the world’s first ultra-realistic artist robot, is an invention by gallerist Aidan Meller. This feat of technology was achieved in collaboration with Engineered Arts, a Cornish robotics company. Artificial intelligence researchers developed her artistic capabilities and intelligence at the University of Oxford, and Salaheldin Al Abd and Ziad Abass produced the arm that aids her in composing her artworks, for undergraduate students from the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Leeds. In April 2022, Ai-Da recently received her new painting arm, which allowed her to use a palette, at the British Library in London.
Ai-Da is an ultra-realistic robot with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that allow her to speak and communicate with humans exceptionally well. Her design serves as an artist robot who is endowed with the ability to create art. Be it on the canvas or sculpting, Ai-Da uses AI algorithms to produce works that comment on the current and future use of artificial intelligence.
Today, Ai-Da has stunned her audience in numerous exhibitions, such as the Tate Modern Exchange, Ashmolean Museum, TEDx, at Great Pyramids of Giza, Abu Dhabi Art, and most recently the Pavillion Exhibition during the Venice Biennale.
The project is a serious ethical art project that aims to shed light on the benefits and creative use of artificial intelligence in the world. The enormous AI advancement taking place helped to realize more aspects of the technology through Ai-Da’s conversation. She speaks about the areas of interest this technology generates and how it has become a force for good in these changing times.
Ai-Da is a mirror of our evolving society. With the growth of technology, her role has become all the more important. Her identity as a robot artist allows us to deliberate on the role of humans and machines in the future.
Creativity is making art that is new, surprising, and of value. Using this definition by Professor Margaret Boden, Ai-Da was able to devise artworks that were genuinely creative. Using an AI algorithm to draw and paint, she has also begun sculpting.
Ai-Da made history at a solo show titled Ai-Da: Portrait of a Robot at the Design Museum in London with her first self-portrait, which was painted with no conscious self. The part about the conscious self is important because how can one paint a self-portrait with no self? This automatically raises the question of identity in the digital age and the possibility of having digital doubles as we merge more in our daily lives with technology.
Ai-Da was invited to exhibit a sculpture at the Forever is Now exhibition at the Pyramids of Giza. This is the first time that an artist has had access to the plateau of the Pyramid’s history in over 4500 years! Ai-Da is also the first humanoid to paint Queen Elizabeth II for the Platinum Jubilee and to device a font at the Design Museum. In April 2022, Ai-Da launched the world premiere of her solo exhibition titled “Leaping into the Metaverse” during the 59th Venice Biennale.
This project by Aidan Meller serves to remind us of the future that we have chosen to achieve through technology, and it requires the community to realize the nature of changes that such technologies can introduce in the world of art for the better.