The World's First Robot Painter Interrogated

The robot is part of an experimental art project that aims to let the technology speak for itself. The AI-powered robot Ai-Da became the first of its kind to speak in the UK Parliament after addressing the House of Lords alongside its creator, artist and gallerist Aidan Meller.

That's what this robot appeared before colleagues of the Communications and Digital Committee to present evidence about technology's impact on the creative industries. I would like to move on to the details of this interesting news.

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Robot Ai-Da Highlights the Complexity of Technology

The humanoid robot painter, named after mathematician Ada Lovelace, was developed in 2019 by Cornish robotics company Engineered Arts and computer AI.

Designed as a contemporary art project aimed at exploring the artistic potential of artificial intelligence, robot Ai-Da has made headlines in recent years for a number of artworks, including a portrait of Queen Elizabeth and "Leaping into the Metaverse" to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee.

"I thought, is it really possible for us to criticize, interpret and look at this world of technology, with the technology speaking for itself," said Meller while introducing the robot Ai-Da during the parliamentary session.

In order to give higher quality answers pre-prepared by AI, the robot answered pre-submitted questions.

Ai-Da was responding to Baroness Featherstone of the Liberal Democrats who asked her about the future role of technology in creating art. Featherstone went on to ask Meller if the robot was a "puppet master."

He explained that the dataset Ai-Da uses to make art could be as large as the entire internet. "I'm going to give an example of how extensive this is, which is very upsetting for people," he said. “We actually ask him about his job, what he wants to do and his ideas for it. We're able to have a very collaborative conversation about what potential data areas he could look at."

“This is feeding all the movies about AI, taking over the world,” Featherstone said, adding that the complexity of the technology exceeded his expectations.

Inquiry Video

At one point, Ai-Da appeared to have fallen asleep and had to be rebooted. He wore sunglasses during the procedure because, Meller explained, “When we reset it, it can sometimes pull up some pretty interesting faces.”

Robot Ai-Da uses cameras in its eyes and computer vision algorithms to interpret what's in front of it. His robotic arms are then activated in response to this information via a special control system, allowing him to paint. How weird, is not it?

Meller, who is also the gallery director, said: “The greatest artists have questioned and engaged in the social changes of their time. The more I read about the future and where we are going as a world, I realize that this much-needed discussion of the nature of technology doesn't have much airtime. I started to worry more and more about this.”

“I want to make it very clear that we are not here to promote robots or any particular technology. This is truly a contemporary art project.”