Ai-Da

The world’s first ultra-realistic
humanoid robot artist

Ai-Da is the world’s first ultra-realistic artist robot. She draws and paints using cameras in her eyes, her AI algorithms, and her robotic arm. Created in February 2019, she had her first solo show at the University of Oxford, ‘Unsecured Futures’, where her art encouraged viewers to think about our rapidly changing world. She has since travelled and exhibited work internationally, including a virtual exhibition at the United Nations. She has spoken about the sometimes troubling impacts of new technologies at the House of Lords, and at the Oxford Union. She had her first show in a major museum, the Design Museum, in 2021. In 2022 she had a solo exhibition during the Venice Biennale, at the Concilio Europeo Dell'Arte in the Giardini. She continues to create art that challenges our notions of the artist and creativity, and her artwork stimulates discussion over new technologies and their use/misuse.

Ai-Da - is it art?

The role and definition of art changes over time. Ai-Da’s work is art, because it reflects the enormous integration of technology in todays society. We recognise ‘art’ means different things to different people. 

We recognise Ai-Da as creative under the criteria set by Professor Margaret Boden, requiring works to be new, surprising and of cultural value (2016, Oxford University Press).

Today, a dominant opinion is that art is created by the human, for other humans. This has not always been the case. The ancient Greeks felt art and creativity came from the Gods. Inspiration was divine inspiration. Today, a dominant mind-set is that of humanism, where art is an entirely human affair, stemming from human agency. However, current thinking suggests we are edging away from humanism, into a time where machines and algorithms influence our behaviour to a point where our ‘agency’ isn’t just our own. It is starting to get outsourced to the decisions and suggestions of algorithms, and complete human autonomy starts to look less robust. Ai-Da creates art, because art no longer has to be restrained by the requirement of human agency alone.