Ai-Da poses with one of the artworks she created in 2021. (Source: Wikimedia Commons/photo by Lucy Seal)

 AI-Da the AI Robot Visits Great Britain, Expresses Views on Tech, but Crashes

Across the pond, some folks can’t catch a break in England. Even The House of Lords was hugely disappointed in what was to be their first introduction to AI.

AI seems more tangible in the form of Ai-Da, the speaking robot that is breaking ground around the world. Seeflection.com wrote about her a while back when she was trying to enter Egypt and the authorities were worried she was a spy.

Now she was in England to meet with The Lords for them to get a better understanding of how AI affects their economy and the number of jobs it can help produce.  Except there was an issue as reported on guardian.com.

When it announced that “the world’s first robot artist” would be giving evidence to a parliamentary committee, the House of Lords probably hoped to shake off its sleepy reputation.

Unfortunately, when the Ai-Da robot arrived at the Palace of Westminster, the opposite seemed to occur. Overcome by the stuffy atmosphere, the machine, which “resembles a sex doll strapped to a pair of egg whisks,” shut down halfway through the evidence session. As its creator, Aidan Meller, scrabbled with power sockets to restart the device, he put a pair of sunglasses on the machine.

“When we reset her, she can sometimes pull quite interesting faces,” he explained.

The headlines that followed were unlikely to be what the Lords communications committee had hoped for when inviting Meller and his creation to give evidence as part of an inquiry into the future of the UK’s creative economy. But Ai-Da is part of a long line of humanoid robots who have dominated the conversation around AI.

The article goes on to explain the amount of friction that AI in the form of image generators like DAll-E is causing between artists and the business of producing and selling art.

“Ai-Da is Duchampian, and is part of a discussion in contemporary art and follows in the footsteps of Andy Warhol, Nam June Paik, Lynn Hershman Leeson, all of whom have explored the humanoid in their art. Ai-Da can be considered within the dada tradition, which challenged the notion of ‘art’. Ai-Da in turn challenges the notion of ‘artist’. While good contemporary art can be controversial it is our overall goal that a wide-ranging and considered conversation is stimulated.”

Yes, the future is here, but it still needs a few adjustments.

read more at theguardian.com