Alan Turing Painting created by AI Robot sells for $1m

An AI robot’s painting of the World War Two codebreaker Alan Turing has sold for $1,084,800 (£836,667) at auction.

According to Sotheby’s, there were 27 bids for the digital art sale of ‘AI God: Portrait of Alan Turing’, which had been originally estimated to sell for between $120,000 (£9,252) and $180,000 (£139,000).

Mathematician Turing was a pioneer of computer science and was known as the father of artificial intelligence (AI).

The auction house said the historic sale “launches a new frontier in the global art market, establishing the auction benchmark for an artwork by a humanoid robot”.

Sotheby’s added that the work by Ai-Da Robot is “the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork sold at auction”.

The artwork is a large-scale original portrait of Alan Turing, who studied at King’s College, Cambridge.

The scientist played a vital role in the Allies’ victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two by helping to crack codes and deciphering the infamous Enigma machine at Bletchley Park.

Turing’s work laid the foundations for the development of early computers.

He took his own life in 1954 after being convicted under homophobic Victorian-era laws and subjected to chemical castration.

Sotheby’s said the online sale was bought by an undisclosed buyer for a price “far outstripping the artwork’s estimate price”.

The auction house said the sale price for the first artwork by a humanoid robot artist “marks a moment in the history of modern and contemporary art and reflects the growing intersection between AI technology and the global art market”.

Ai-Da Robot is a humanoid robot artist with a black bob and robotic arms, which uses an advanced AI language model to speak.

Invented by British gallerist Aidan Meller, the robot said:

“The key value of my work is its capacity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies.”

It said the work “invites viewers to reflect on the god-like nature of AI and computing while considering the ethical and societal implications of these advancements”.

“Alan Turing recognised this potential, and stares at us, as we race towards this future.”

Aidan Meller added: “This auction is an important moment for the visual arts, where Ai-Da’s artwork brings focus on the artworld and societal changes, as we grapple with the rising age of AI.

“The artwork ‘AI God’ raises questions about agency, as AI gains more power.”