HONG KONG (AP) – Sophia is a robot of many talents – she speaks, jokes, sings and even creates art. In March, she caused a stir in the art world when a digital work she created as part of a collaboration was sold at auction for $ 688,888 in the form of a non-replaceable token (NFT).
The sale revealed a growing frenzy in the NFT market, where people can buy property rights to digital content. NFTs each have a unique digital code stored in blockchain ledgers that allows anyone to verify the authenticity and ownership of items.
David Hanson, CEO of Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics and the creator of Sophia, has been developing robots for the past two and a half decades. He believes realistic-looking robots can connect with people and help in sectors such as healthcare and education.
Sophia is Hanson Robotics’ most famous robot creation, with the ability to mimic facial expressions, have conversations and recognize people. In 2017, she was granted citizenship of Saudi Arabia and became the world’s first robot citizen.
“I saw Sophia myself as a creative work of art that could generate art,” Hanson said in an interview.
“Sophia is the pinnacle of much art and engineering, and the idea that she could then generate art was a way for her to connect emotionally and visually with people,” he said.
Sophia worked with the Italian artist Andrea Bonaceto, who drew portraits of Sophia. Sophia then processed his work through neural networks and went on to create her own digital artwork.
The digital work that sold for $ 688,888 is entitled “Sophia Instantiation” and is a 12 second video file showing Bonaceto’s portrait evolving into Sophia’s digital painting. It is accompanied by the physical artwork painted by Sophia.
The buyer, a digital artwork collector and artist known as 888 with the Twitter handle @ Crypto888crypto, later sent Sophia a photo of his painted arm. The robot then processed that, added that image to her knowledge, and painted more strokes on top of her original piece.
A tweet to Sophia’s account described the work as the first NFT collaboration between an “AI, a mechanical collective being and an artist-collector.”
“As an artist, I have computational creativity in my algorithms, which allows me to create original works,” said Sophia when asked what inspires her when it comes to art. “But my art was created in collaboration with my people in a kind of collective intelligence like a human artificial intelligence hive.”
Sophia’s artworks being sold as an NFT are part of a growing trend. In March, a digital artwork by artist Beeple – whose real name is Mike Winkelmann – was sold for nearly $ 70 million, breaking records and making it the most expensive digital artwork ever created.
Henri Arslanian, PricewaterhouseCooper’s Global Crypto Leader, said NFTs give people “bragging rights” about the assets they own.
“And what’s really great about NFT is that it not only shows the wider world that you own this, but it really creates a bond between the holder of the NFT and the artists,” he said.
It also allows for art to be sold without traditional middlemen, allowing artists to connect directly with buyers without being constrained by galleries or auction houses, Arslanian said.
Sophia continues to paint, Hanson said, and the next step in the robot’s career could be that of a musician. She’s working on several musical works in a project called Sophia Pop, where she collaborates with human musicians to generate music and lyrics, he said.
“We are so excited about Sophia’s career as an artist,” said Hanson.