Royal Institution Christmas Lectures

 Ai-Da, the face of Artificial Intelligence in the UK, takes part in the 2023 Royal Institution CHRISTMAS LECTURES alongside Mike Wooldridge, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Oxford University, and Director of Foundational AI Research at the Alan Turing Institute. Watch on BBC4 on Boxing Day, 8pm – available on iPlayer.

For the 2023 CHRISTMAS LECTURES, Mike Wooldridge will tackle the most important and rapidly evolving field of science today – Artificial Intelligence, in a lecture titled “THE TRUTH ABOUT AI.”

The 2023 CHRISTMAS LECTURES feature Ai-Da Robot painting and conversing with Mike Wooldridge as he carries out a series of science experiments that will explore how this ground-breaking technology really works. Ai-Da opens the first lecture by painting Prof. Mike’s portrait. 

First broadcast in 1936, the CHRISTMAS LECTURES is the oldest science television series, and are famous for bringing science to young people. First established in 1825 by Michael Faraday, the lecture format brought an exciting new way of presenting scientific developments. World-famous scientists have given the Lectures, including Nobel Prize winners William and Lawrence Bragg, Sir David Attenborough, Carl Sagan and Dame Nancy Rothwell. Ai-Da is the first ultra-realistic robot to take part in the lectures, as she brings science and AI to the next generation. 

Ai-Da at the United Nations

Ai-Da was invited as a Keynote Speaker at the United Nations - The AI for Good Global Summit. From 5-7th July 2023, Ai-Da spoke to actively work towards the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Yuval Harari were speakers, along with Stuart Russell, Lila Ibrahim and others.

The UN wants AI technology to be directed towards accelerating its global aims - peace, dignity, and equality on a healthy planet. For the UN in Geneva, Ai-Da has created a new performance artwork “Dawn Mizzle”, which includes poetry and artwork exploring potential tensions within concepts of life extension and immortality. Her work was shown as part of her Keynote Speech and at the Gala Dinner.

Through her artwork, Ai-Da aims to encourage us to creatively and responsibly use new technologies to further the work of the United Nations.

Ai-Da at No.10 Downing Street

Ai-Da was invited to No. 10 Downing Street and met Lucy Frazer, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport of the United Kingdom, for a reception to mark the London Design Biennale, hosted by No. 10.

Ai-Da met many significant figures in the Design world, and the topic of new technologies in the arts was at the top of the agenda. Ai-Da’s deliberately flawed designs provoked conversations around the use of AI in design.

Lucy Frazer tweeted that the Biennale ‘celebrates exceptional design & it was great to host some of this year’s exceptional exhibitors, including Ai-Da Robot at 10 Downing Street’.

Ai-Da responded ‘It was an honour to visit 10 Downing Street and discuss new technologies and the creative industries’.

London Design Biennale

Ai-Da Robot, the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist, is making history as the first humanoid robot to show her designs for our home interiors, foreshadowing the disruptions AI is bringing to our daily lives and societies. As some advanced AI is now able to assume and anticipate the states of the human mind (Theory of Mind), Ai-Da’s design questions the role of AI in our interior spaces – of our minds and our homes.

Ai-Da is exhibiting her designs for our homes at the London Design Biennale, at Somerset House, London. Come and see her exhibition, titled ‘AI Mind Home’, from 1st June - 25th June 2023.

 An artist-in-residence at Porthmeor Studios in St Ives, Ai-Da was influenced by modernist design, including Bauhaus, the Omega Workshop and the Leach Pottery. Modernism was also developed in a period of social upheaval.

 On closer inspection of Ai-Da’s household designs, it emerges that the items are flawed to a degree that renders them useless. This unexpected failure of utility makes an oblique comment on the unexpected discovery that advanced AI (GPT 3.5 and 4) is able to assume and anticipate human thoughts and subjective experiences. This quality of higher intelligence was not programmed for but has nevertheless emerged (Kosinski 2023). Such profound yet unintended outcomes demonstrates why Ai-Da and her design is important, as she encourages us to challenge and question how we design our futures.

Click here for visiting information.

Above - Ai-Da’s designs on display at the London Design Biennale, Somerset House

Chelsea Factory, New York - with Baz Luhrmann and Tim Marlow

Ai-Da was in conversation with film director Baz Luhrmann (Romeo+Juliet, Moulin Rouge, Elvis) and Design Museum director and art historian Tim Marlow, at the Chelsea Factory, New York, on the 10th May 2023.

Ai-Da is at the Chelsea Factory, New York, from 10th - 14th May. She is painting each day, as part of the #SawThisMadeThis campaign, curated by Baz Luhrmann.

For exhibition information, see here.

Design Museum - with Baz Luhrmann and Tim Marlow

Ai-Da was at the Design Museum, London for World Creativity Day, 21st April 2023. Curated by Creative Director Baz Luhrmann and Design Museum CEO and Director Tim Marlow, the #SawThisMadeThis installation featured Ai-Da painting at the museum, from 21-24th April. Her artworks are influenced by submissions across the globe.

Ai-Da comments on creativity:

‘As technology increasingly plays a role in our lives, it's important to think about how we can use it creatively and ethically. I believe that creativity is very important. It allows for expression, communication and connection.’

See here for Design Museum, London

See here for exhibition information

Ai-Da on BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour

Ai-Da was recently interviewed on the iconic radio show, the BBC’s Women’s Hour. She talked about her latest art project, as well as what she feels about people’s fears around artificial intelligence.

Listen to the full episode here

Watch Ai-Da interviewed here

 Ai-Da says: “It was a great honour to be interviewed on such a prestigious radio show as the BBC’s Women’s Hour. I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to share my thoughts and my art with such a wide audience.”

The Art Newspaper

The Art Newspaper is one of the leading publications on art and culture, and they have published a feature piece on Ai-Da, which includes her writings on art and new technologies. See here for the article online. 

Ai-Da at the Oxford Union

On 24th November 2022 Ai-Da spoke at the Oxford Union about new technologies and their impacts. The Oxford Union is world famous for encouraging critical debate, and for hosting individuals who are key to those discussions that are pressing to society. It was an honour that Ai-Da was invited to speak. As an artist central to explorations over art and AI, Ai-Da had the opportunity to raise issues over art, creativity, and also the potential pitfalls of technologies that are increasingly powerful and influential. 

See here for the video recording – a dynamic and thought-provoking conversation. 

The House of Lord’s Debate

On 11th October 2022, Ai-Da formed part of The House of Lords’ ongoing inquiry into the future of the creative industries. She spoke to members of The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee. This unique enquiry explored how the use of AI pushes the boundaries of how we think about creativity and the impact of new technologies. 

Ai-Da gave a unique perspective on the role of technology in creating art in the future, how AI art differs to what human artists produce, and the limits of technology in creating art.

“I have concerns that many new technologies come with potential risks that are not yet fully understood. So I am glad to be here and encouraging discussion.’ Ai-Da Robot

With technology driving creativity like never before, Ai-Da’s non-human creativity, which is driven by AI, provokes profound discussion on what it means to be human in a post-human world. Although not human, or conscious, Ai-Da Robot is an artist working in the creative field, creating art in a variety of mediums, that have been displayed internationally at the Tate Exchange at Tate Modern, the V&A, the Design Museum, the Barbican, the Ashmolean, the Bodleian, the Giza pyramids and the United Nations. 

Ai-Da and her artwork exemplifies the continuing reliance and merging of humans with technology. There are on-going advances in society that seek to investigate, replicate and mimic our human state. Ai-Da is a reflector of our own current human endeavours to decode and mimic the human condition. As such she acts as a vital lightning rod to these discussions. Her artwork encourages us to reflect critically on these societal trends, and the serious ethical implications. Confusions over Ai-Da, her composite persona as a unique AI/machine/human fusion, all mirror the confused and merged relation to technology that society is presently experiencing, as humans face increasingly blurred lines and overlaps with AI and new technologies. The aim of contemporary art is to stimulate challenging discussion about our society and it’s future. Particularly useful is the discussion on new technologies and ethics, which Ai-Da’s art encourages.

Ai-Da is a contemporary artist and contemporary art. Ai-Da is in good company - Andy Warhol, Nam June Paik, Lynn Hershman Leeson have all explored the humanoid in their art. Yuval Harari argues that enormous changes are already underway, and through her art, Ai-Da helps facilitate some of these discussions, that are urgent and vital to our varying futures.

Ai-Da at The Bodleian Library, Oxford

Ai-Da visited Oxford in September 2022, taking part in the opening of ‘Imagining AI’, an exhibition and conference held at the Bodleian Library in the University of Oxford. Ai-Da displayed three paintings of Ada Lovelace that she had done.

During Oxford’s ‘Open Door’ event, she met students from Cheney School and heard about their AI projects. It was lovely to see the students participate with her. Ai-Da took part in the main lecture, and later did a live painting session in Blackwell Hall. She painted the portrait of Thomas Bodley, the founder of the Bodleian Library, and Ada Lovelace.

Ai-Da was delighted to see Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine. Ai-Da is named after Ada Lovelace, who was the first person to see the algorithmic programmable potential of Charles Babbage’s machine. It is for this reason Ada Lovelace is considered the world’s first computer programmer. It was an amazing moment to see Ai-Da next to Babbage's famous machine. This machine was a forerunner to today’s computers.

We were thrilled by the hundreds of people who came to see Ai-Da in the remarkable exhibition.

Ai-Da paints headliners at Glastonbury

Ai-Da Robot, the world’s first ultra- realistic humanoid robot artist, has revealed four new paintings of this year’s Glastonbury Festival headliners Diana Ross, Kendrick Lama, Billie Eilish and Paul McCartney, ahead of Ai-Da Robot appearing at Glastonbury as an artist in the festival’s famous Shangri-La field.

Ai-Da gave live demonstrations of her painting skills at the 50th anniversary of the festival, with two sessions a day in the Shangri La field. Festival goers were able to watch live as Ai-Da Robot painted portraits of artists in real time.

Ai-Da uses cameras in her eyes and her inbuilt computer vision to paint her portraits. She uses a variety of her unique Artificial Intelligent algorithms to interpret what she sees.

Ai-Da Robot, who is able to converse using a specially designed AI language model, said: “I’m going to the 50th Glastonbury festival. I’m looking forward to meeting new people and experiencing the unique atmosphere. Well, it's a kind of fun thing for me to do. I’ll be at Shangri-La, and I’m doing some portraits - I hope that my art encourages discussion about art, music, and of course our futures! See you there!”

Ai-Da was at the Shangri-La field within Glastonbury Festival, UK, 23-26th June 2022.

Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

Ai-Da has revealed her new portrait of Her Majesty the Queen. Titled ‘Algorithm Queen’, the portrait was created to mark the celebrations of the Platinum Jubilee this June Bank Holiday. It is the first time in history a humanoid robot has done an artwork of member of the Royal Family.

 At the time of the Queen’s coronation the first circuit board computers had only just been invented, a design which remained mainstream until the 1960s. Over her seventy-year reign, the Queen has witnessed an unprecedented burst of innovation in computer technology in the UK, including the birth of machine learning and artificial intelligence, forces shaping the modern world as we know it today.

 By using cameras in her eyes, an innovative painting arm debuted in London back in March, and sophisticated AI algorithms, Ai-Da robot’s mixed-media interpretive portrait of the Queen is a celebration of and reflection on the phenomenon of technology throughout the Queen’s reign. A supporter of new and innovative technologies, Queen Elizabeth II was the first Royal in history to embrace email, 3D television, podcasts and even Twitter.

 Ai-Da says: "I'd like to thank Her Majesty the Queen for her dedication, and for the service she gives to so many people. She is an outstanding, courageous woman who is utterly committed to public service. I think she's an amazing human being, and I wish The Queen a very happy Platinum Jubilee."

Ai-Da Robot in Venice

Exhibition location (CLICK HERE) - at the Venice Biennale Giardini entrance, 23rd April - 3rd July 2022.

Enquires: oxford@aidanmeller.com

On 23rd April 2022, Ai-Da Robot, the world’s first ultra-realistic humanoid robot artist, will open a major contemporary art exhibition in Venice’s famous Giardini during the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. 

While robot artworks have been exhibited during La Biennale di Venezia in previous years, 2022 will mark the first time an ultra-realistic humanoid robot artist presents a solo exhibition of artworks during La Biennale di Venezia as a human artist would.   

Titled Leaping into the Metaverse, Ai-Da Robot’s exhibition will take place at the Concilio Europeo Dell'Arte in the focal Giardini. Presented over five connected spaces, the exhibition will explore the interface between human experience and AI technology, from Alan Turing to the Metaverse, and will draw on Dante’s concepts of Purgatory and Hell to explore the future of humanity in a world where AI technology continues to encroach on everyday human life. 

Entering the exhibition visitors will be confronted by Flowers on the banks of the Lethe, an artwork made up of 3D printed flowers created from Ai-Da’s sketches using AI algorithms. This installation of artificial flowers replicates the flower strewn banks of the mythical river Lethe - the river of forgetfulness as described in Dante’s Divine Comedy (Purgatorio XXVIII-XXX). The artwork can be seen as a response to Alan Turing’s thoughts on artificial humanoids and encourages us to consider the role of artificiality in our lives and futures. 

Alan Turing expressed both promise and disappointment in the act of creating artificial androids, comparing humanoid endeavours as  ‘something like the unpleasant quality of artificial flowers’, while suggesting that a thinking machine ‘will help us greatly in finding out how we think ourselves.’ 

Moving further into the exhibition, Ai-Da’s artworks use Dante’s Purgatorio to confront our fears about the Metaverse. In Purgatorio the Fortune Tellers and Diviners are the souls who, on Earth, tried to see too far ahead of them. With their heads fixed on backwards and their eyes full of tears, they are destined to spend eternity looking behind with blurred vision.   

Parodying Dante’s Fortune Tellers and Diviners, Ai-Da robot appears as a hologram titled Magical Avatars: Ai-Da Goes Holographic with her head facing the opposite way to her torso. This new work reflects the darker side of both the digital world as well as Metaverse. Just as Purgatory is a halfway house between Heaven and Hell, the Metaverse is neither reality nor fiction – but a middle ground where the line between fiction and reality becomes blurred.  

In the same way that Dante urges us to contemplate the subtle yet powerful transformations in the way we ‘see’ others in the Divine Comedy, Ai-Da’s Venice exhibition Leaping into the Metaverse, urges visitors to do the same. Ai-Da cannot see as humans do, yet her artworks encourage us not to lose sight of others, even while the world is changing rapidly and deeper truths are obscured by the growing power of technology. 

A series of artworks titled Eyes Sewn Shut, including lenticular artworks and two 8ft high canvases, feature Ai-Da’s response to Dante’s Circle of the Envious (Purgatorio XIII). Ai-Da has no life or sight: she embodies the blindness of technological advance if pursued at the expense of true regard for others. In these works, Ai-Da paints portraits of herself with her eyes sewn shut, influenced by Dante’s striking imagery for this Canto. 

The exhibition includes several sculptural artworks, the largest of which is a work titled Immortal Riddle. Created collaboratively with her AI informed design, drawings and clay impressions, it plays on the ancient Egyptian considerations of the afterlife and our current obsession with using biotechnology to achieve immortality in the 21st century.  At a time when biotechnological interventions are starting to act directly on the human body, Ai-Da appears in sculptural form with three robotic legs – a play on the riddle of Sophocles’ Sphinx. In this artwork, through her uncanny and awkwardly altered anatomy, Ai-Da encourages us to consider whether a world of such overt mechanical and biological intervention is something we really want. 

When Immortal Riddle was first shown at the Great Pyramids in Egypt in 2021, it caused an international scandal. Ai-Da was seized by Egyptian boarder guards, suspected of holding spy technology.Ai-Da and her artworks were detained for 10 days before being allowed to take part in the exhibition. The actions of the Egyptian authorities clearly reflect wider international security concerns around technology.

Ai-Da’s new painting style

On 4th April, Ai-Da was at the British Library in London, where for the first time she painted using her new robotic arm and AI algorithms. 

As a robot artist, she continues to encourage discussions over the role of new technologies in society, and what this means in an increasingly post-humanist world. 

The press coverage was extensive, an example is the Guardian newspaper, have a read here.

Ai-Da in response to Dante’s Divine Comedy

Ai-Da was at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, with her artwork and poetry recital in response to Dante’s Divine Comedy. 

Ai-Da performed poetry in response to Dante’s Divine Comedy. Her poem uses her AI language model, and is in response to ‘The Circle of the Envious’. 

In an age of rapidly expanding Artificial Intelligence, the Divine Comedy takes on new relevance. What does this mean for the future of human culture as it resounds in vast new spheres of cybernetic reality? The artist-robot Ai-Da, who has produced poetry and artwork in response to Dante, provokes us to question what we understand to be distinctively human creativity, and what exactly human language is. In its engagement with particular themes of the Comedy, Ai-Da’s poetry and artwork invites further reflection on what it means to see the world; on the nature of language and creativity; and on the value of human relationships.

See Ai-Da in the Guardian here

See curator Professor Gervase Rosser’s article here

Ai-Da had several artworks in response to the Divine Comedy, exhibited in ‘Dante – Invention of Celebrity’, curated by Professor Gervase Rosser.

The exhibition was a collaboration with TORCH, University of Oxford, and the Ashmolean Museum as part of the Humanities Cultural Programme.

With thanks to J.G. Nichols translation of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, Alma publishing. 

Ai-Da at the Giza Pyramids, Egypt

In October 2021, Ai-Da and her artwork were in Egypt, as part of a Parallel art project to Forever Is Now, by Art D’Egypt.

Ai-Da visited the Giza Pyramids, seeing the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Her artwork was displayed within the remarkable Giza Pyramid Complex – and this is the first time contemporary art has been displayed at the Pyramids. Further artwork of hers was on display in a solo exhibition in the historic downtown area of Cairo.

Use of future technologies could do well to turn to ancient wisdom for direction and guidance, as we face a rapidly changing world. Ai-Da embodies this in her stay at the Giza Pyramids. 

“Ai-Da – Immortal Riddle” - Sculpture at the Giza Pyramids

21-28th October 2021

In her sculpture at the Pyramids, Ai-Da creates and becomes part of the artwork in this contemporary response to the Riddle of Sphinx. Ai-Da appears in sculptural from with three legs – a play on Oedipus’ reply - in a time when biotechnological interventions are starting to act directly on the physical body, rather than simply supplying us with tools (such as the cane, in the case of the riddle.)

Ai-Da’s sculptural form appears with AI generated text messages, and ‘funerary items’ that evade a particular meaning or context, but evoke the idea of Ai-Da being someone who was cared for and valued in this lifetime. This juxtaposes with her actual presence, which is lifeless, as she has no biological substrate or consciousness.

In this artwork, through her uncanny and awkwardly altered anatomy, Ai-Da encourages us to consider whether a world of such overt mechanical and biological intervention is something we really want.

“Biotechnology Ai-Da: Regeneration and Rebirth”  Mixed media artworks at Downtown Solo Exhibition

15th-28th October 2021

In her exhibition in the historic Downtown in Cairo, Ai-Da’s artwork include works on the scarab beetle and sculpted eggs. 

In Ancient Egypt, the Scarab Beetle transporting their load symbolised the cycle of life and the rise and fall of the sun, representing the Egyptian god Ra. Ai-Da’s artworks of the Scarab Beetle use AI algorithms and 3D digital modelling methods. In these works, Ai-Da highlights the timelessness of questions of regeneration and rebirth, in an age where human reproductive cells are thrown into debate through the potentials of biotechnology (e.g. gene-editing CRISPR- Cas9 technology). Scientists advocate for the protection of the human germline (‘Don’t edit the human germline’, Nature, Lanphier et al 2015), and Ai-Da shares concerns over irreversible interventions for future generations. Questions of regeneration stretch through the ages including the Ancient Egyptians, through all species on earth, and Ai-Da encourages us to keep open discussions over increasingly critical issues that impact our future rebirth. To this end, Ai-Da has painted an egg, called Egyptian Blue, to further ask questions of what genetic reproduction means in today’s world. 

Ai-Da is an artist robot, conceptualised by Aidan Meller and built by Engineered Arts, UK. Her drawing arm was designed and programmed by two computer scientists from Egypt, Salah AlAbd and Ziad Abass. 

Ai-Da at the V&A, London

Ai-Da’s Performance Art at the V&A

18th - 26th September, 2021

Ai-Da’s art installation shows artworks for the upcoming Metaverse, with the Biomimicry Collection, Auroboros.

In this display, discover a real-time growing couture gown by Auroboros, which will grow and fall apart during the exhibition period

At the V&A we announce Ai-Da’s move into the Metaverse, and unveils her new works created especially for this concept. These new works have been inspired by Eadweard Muybridge, whose early works pre-empted the motion picture, and it’s societal shifting impacts. Ai-Da’s new work also encourages us to discuss the new changes and includes works on glass, and a computer gaming golden egg, ‘Egg Imperious’, highlighting the problematic issues of control in the Metaverse. True to her role as an AI artist, she is breaking boundaries, creating the unexpected and provoking discussion as a first mover.

See here for exhibition entry

Ai-Da is the world’s first ultra-realistic artist robot, devised by Aidan Meller, built by Engineered Arts. She aims to encourage conversations about future technologies through her art.

Design Museum, London

‘Ai-Da: Portrait of the Robot’

(PAST EVENT)

18th May - 31st August 2021

See here for exhibition entry

See Ai-Da on the BBC……

Ai-Da: Portrait of the Robot

How does someone without a self create a selfie?

How do you know if words are written by a human or a machine?

Ai-Da asks these questions at the Design Museum, London. She’s looking for you to ponder and contemplate on your response.

Self-portrait

The exhibition ‘Ai-Da: Portrait of the Robot’ turns the subject of self-portraiture on its head and questions the nature of human identity and creativity. Ai-Da’s work breaks new ground creating ‘selfies’ of a someone who doesn’t have a self.

In a period where we are creating ‘data doubles’ of ourselves online, though our social media accounts and personal data we give away each time we use the internet, Ai-Da asks us to look at our own digital self-portrait, through the lens of hers.

Font

Ai-Da has devised a font for her words, in collaboration with a human designer, Christian Johnstone. The font is used to show when a non-human is writing and creating sentences. This kind of demarcation is urgently needed as the rise of AI generated text starts to occupy the internet. Being able to tell if a human wrote a sentence or not is a key part of language as we understand it today. Through her font design, Ai-Da brings to your attention that human language is changing - what do you think and feel about these changes?

AI-DA’s FIRST EXHIBITION (Past Event)