Humanoid robot Sophia's NFT artwork becomes world's first AI painting to be sold online

Hanson Robotics’ female AI robot named Sophia turned world’s first machine artist to sell her Non-Fungible Token (NFT) digital paintings dubbed as ‘Sophia Instantiation’ at an auction on premier marketplace Nifty Gateway. Her art pieces, which were purchased using Ethereum blockchain exchange, were created in collaboration with the UK-based Italian art specialist Andrea Bonaceto, who sold Beeple’s Everyday at Christie’s for $69 million last week. NFTs, in the likeness of the cryptocurrency, constitute unique codes and can be stored in ledgers or digi wallets. AI robot Sophia’s auction of NFT art pieces marked the first breakthrough between a human and a robot trading.

Artist Bonaceto displayed AI humanoid Sophia’s work to the public on March 23 at 6:30 p.m. EDT at Nifty Gateway. It has the highest bidding for $118,888.00, nearly ten hours since it was put for auction. 31-year-old artist Bonaceto, who paints digitally on iPad,  has a proven reputation as an NFT creator and dons artwork of some of the famous personalities such as electric car maker Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. According to her Instagram, she also creates acrylic portraitures that reflect hyperrealistic themes. 

First human-robot collaboration

Aiming to create something revolutionary, Bonaceto pitched an idea of auctioning humanoid AI robot Sophia’s NFT artworks to her developer David Hanson, sources of Newsweek revealed. To roboticist Hanson, the CEO of Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics, the idea of the first human-robot collaboration appeared ‘fascinating’. Sophia drew inspiration from Bonaceto’s paintings and ran algorithms to create several pieces, using digital brushstrokes and whorls.

Sophia digitally created her own portrait using AI and did what the roboticist David Hanson describes as ‘an artistic revolution.’ “The experience of collaborating with Sophia and Hansen on the project at Nifty Gateway has been amazing. Grown so much as an artist since we started this project,” Bonaceto tweeted. Meanwhile, humanoid Sophia plans to “study the highest bidder’s face” who will purchase her work and will add “one last iteration” to her digital artwork. 

(Image Credit: Twitter/@RealSophiaRobot)