Ai-Da: art or illusion?

‘Ai-Da: Portrait of the Robot’ is a small but intriguing exhibition at the Design Museum in London, featuring Ai-Da, the self-proclaimed ‘world’s first ultra-realistic artificial intelligence robot artist’.

She is appropriately named after the English mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), who published the first algorithm for use with Charles Babbage’s Analaytical Engine, one of the earliest mechanical forms of the computer.

Ai-Da is a step towards an AI future that some anticipate with excitement whilst others dread. She was created in 2019 by a team of computer programmers, artists, mathematicians and engineers led by researcher Lucy Seal and gallerist Aidan Meller (who is also Ai-Da’s art dealer; sales of her art works have already raised over $1 million).