The world’s first A.I. robot artist

I summarised this BBC Radio 4 programme. Listen to the full episode here or an extract below.

A.I is ahot topicand this week I’ve decided to summarise a radio programme about an A.I robot artist that was created. It was actually in 2019 but I feel that it is such an exciting, current topic that the fact it was a couple of years agois neither here nor there.

The radio presenter meets the robot’s creator, the Gallery Director, Aidan Meller. He said that he is interested in the rise of A.I but finds it terrifying because of theethics.He is aware of the ‘worrying, complex questions’ that it raises and thinks that exhibiting the work of an art robot is an interesting way of enabling audiences toexplorethese ideas. He decided to create abespokerobot and named her Ai-da.

Ai-da resembles a scarydystopianrobot at first but is moreapproachablewhen she starts moving. She can look you in the eye and is able to express herself. Raisingher eyebrows, blinking, frowningand smiling gives her a very human quality but they decided to give her a slightly boxy, robotic look on purpose. Perhaps they thought that she would have been toofreakyif she’d beenhyper-realistic.

She can drawportraits,paintabstractpaintings and doperformances.At the time of the interview, they were gearing up to an exhibition at Oxford University. At the end of the programme, the presenter asks Aidan if he thinks that robots can be creative. He replies that there is 'absolutelyno doubtin his mind' that they can andcitesthe randomnature of thealgorithmsas a reason for this.

Summary without vocab in bold

A.I is a hot topic and this week I’ve decided to summarise a radio programme about an A.I robot artist that was created. It was actually in 2019 but I feel that it is such an exciting, current topic that the fact it was a couple of years ago is neither here nor there.

The radio presenter meets the robot’s creator, the Gallery Director, Aidan Meller. He said that he is interested in the rise of A.I but finds it terrifying because of the ethics. He is aware of the ‘worrying, complex questions’ that it raises and thinks that exhibiting the work of an art robot is an interesting way of enabling audiences to explore these ideas. He decided to create a bespoke robot and named her Ai-da.

Ai-da resembles a scary dystopian robot at first but is more approachable when she starts moving. She can look you in the eye and is able to express herself. Raising her eyebrows, blinking, frowning and smiling gives her a very human quality but they decided to give her a slightly boxy, robotic look on purpose. Perhaps they thought that she would have been too freaky if she’d been hyper realistic.

She can draw portraits, paint abstract paintings and do performances. At the time of the interview, they were gearing up to an exhibition at Oxford University. At the end of the programme, the presenter asks Aidan if he thinks that robots can be creative. He replies that there is 'absolutely no doubt in his mind' that they can and cites the random nature of the algorithms as a reason for this.

Glossary

A.I

Artificial Intelligence. Computers and machines that use technology to think and do things in the way that humans can

hot topic

A subject that a lot of people are discussing

is neither here nor there

Used for saying that something is not important or relevant

ethics

A set of principles that is used to describe if something is right or wrong

explore

To thoroughly examine or discuss an idea

bespoke

Something that is designed and created for different customers

dystopian

Related to an imaginary place where everything is bad or unpleasant

approachable

Friendly and easy to talk to

To raise

To move upwards

blinking

To quickly shut and open your eyelids

frowning

When someone’s eyebrows become closer together and a line appears on the skin on their forehead.

boxy

Something that has a square shape

freaky

Strange and frightening

Hyper-realistic

Very realistic

portraits

A drawing, painting or photograph of someone (usually head and shoulders)

abstract

Art that expresses an artists idea or feeling rather than representing a real person, thing or situation.

performances

An art form in which an artist performs instead of producing a physical work of art.

gearing up

To prepare for something

no doubt

To be 100% certain about something

cites

To give something as an example

Random

Something that happens without a method, plan or purpose.

algorithms

A set of rules that a computer uses for solving problems

Questions

  1. Are you interested in Artificial Intelligence? Why? Why not?

  2. What other robots have you heard about? What can they do?

  3. What problems can you think of that are associated with A.I?

  4. What’s your opinion of driverless cars?

  5. Do you like the idea of Ai-Da the artist robot?

  6. What do you think of her artwork?

  7. Do you think that robots can be creative?