Ai-Da is "the world's first ultra-realistic humanoid robot". Completed in 2019, Ai-Da is an android incorporating computer graphics and artificial intelligence algorithms that makes drawings, paintings, and sculptures. She is named after Ada Lovelace.
She can also talk, display expressive head and body movements, and track faces with cameras in her eyes.
History
In 2019, Ai-Da was conceived by gallerist Aidan Meller as an AI art generator embodied as a life-like humanoid robot. The hardware was built in collaboration with Engineered Arts, a Cornish robotics company. The graphics algorithms allowing her to draw were developed by computer AI researchers at the University of Oxford, and her drawing arm was developed by Salaheldin Al Abd and Ziad Abass, students from the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Leeds. In April 2022, Ai-Da was equipped with a new arm that enabled it to paint using a palette, first shown at the British Library in London.
Features
Ai-Da can be displayed in either a standing or seated position; although she has legs, she cannot walk. A pair of cameras in the robot's eyes allow the robot to both make eye contact and, in conjunction with a computer vision algorithm and a modified robotic arm, create sketches of the robot's surroundings. One of Ai-Da's developers described the resultant sketches as "fragmented" and "abstracted, unsettling and splintered in style."
Paintings attributed to Ai-Da were previously created by human artists based off the robot's sketches, however she has since been equipped with hardware and software capable of creating paintings autonomously.
Ai-Da has been exhibited alongside sculptures, however the robot's involvement in sculpture creation is minimal: pencil sketches created by Ai-Da are turned into sculptures by an uncredited artist, then 3D printed and cast in bronze.
In addition to art generation, Ai-Da can use "speech pattern analysis, plus an internal data bank of words" to generate poetry, as well as respond to questions (when submitted to her developers in advance) using a language model.
Technology first
Using Professor Margaret Boden's definition of creativity, namely making art that was new, surprising and of value, Ai-Da was able to "creatively" devise drawings using AI and computer graphics algorithms for drawing and painting. Algorithms for collaborative sculpture were subsequently added.
Aidan Meller presented outputs from Ai-Da at a solo show called Ai-Da: Portrait of a Robot at the Design Museum in London, including "self-portraits", an apparent paradox given a robot has no "self". This raised questions about identity in the digital age, and the effects artificial intelligence may have on art in the future. She was also the first humanoid to devise a font, displayed at the Design Museum.
In October 2022, Ai-Da became the first humanoid robot to give evidence at The House of Lords, Palace of Westminster, as part of its A Creative Future inquiry, examining potential challenges for the creative industries and looking at how they can adapt as technology advances. Much press coverage ensued, because Aidan Meller stated that creativity does not need to be conscious, and because the robot inadvertently shut down during the session.
Shows and appearances
In May 2019, Ai-Da executed a live performance called Privacy at St Hugh's College, Oxford. This work was a homage to Yoko Ono's seminal work Cut Piece.
In June 2019, art generated by Ai-Da was featured in a gallery show called Unsecured Futures at St John's College, University of Oxford.
In June 2019, Ai-Da featured at the Barbican Centre, London, in WIRED Pulse: AI.
In September 2019, the Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria: European ARTificial Intelligence Lab exhibition entitled Out of the Box: The Midlife Crisis of the Digital Revolution invited a performance from Ai-Da.
In October 2019, the artist Sadie Clayton worked with Ai-Da on a series of workshops at Tate Exchange, Tate Modern, London – Exploring Identity Through Technology – hosted by A Vibe Called Tech.
In November, 2019, Ai-Da was displayed at Abu Dhabi Art in Manarat Al Saadiyat, UAE.
In December 2019, Ai-Da had her first "interview" with Tim Marlow, the artistic director at the Royal Academy, at the Sarabande (Alexander McQueen Foundation), London, Inspiration Series.
In February 2020, Ai-Da was used to present a TEDx talk in Oxford called The Intersection of Art and AI.