A portrait of Alan Turing painted by a robot has sold for $1 million

A painting of World War II codebreaker Alan Turing created by an AI-controlled robot has sold for $1,084,800 at auction.

A Sotheby’s he announcedthat 27 bids were received for the digital artwork titled “AI God,” originally estimated at between $120,000 and $180,000. Mathematician Turing was a pioneer in computing and known as one of the fathers of artificial intelligence. According to the auction house, the historic sale “ opens up new horizons in the global art market, creating a benchmark for humanoid robot art.” They added that Ai-Da’s work is “the first humanoid robot artist to sell at auction.”

The work is a large original portrait of Turing, who studied at King’s College, Cambridge. The scientist played a crucial role in the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, helping to break the codes and decipher the communications of the infamous Enigma machine at Bletchley Park. After the war, Turig created a detailed plan for the digital computer in today’s sense.

Sotheby’s said the online sale, which ended at 7pm on Thursday, was bought by an unnamed buyer for a price “well in excess of the estimated price of the artwork”. According to the auction house, the sale price of the first artwork created by a humanoid robot artist “signals an important moment in the history of modern and contemporary art and reflects the growing intertwining between AI technology and the global art market.”

The Ai-Da robot – which uses an advanced artificial intelligence language model to speak – said: “The main value of my work is that it can act as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies”. The work “invites viewers to think about the god-like nature of AI and computing while considering the ethical and social implications of these developments,” the robot said. Aidan Meller, director of Ai-Da Robot Studios, said: “This auction is an important moment for the visual arts, as Ai-Da’s artwork draws attention to the changes in the art world and society as we grapple with the rising age of artificial intelligence.