The time has come when parliaments are not only spoken by humans but also by robots. In a hearing that made both parliamentary and technological history, humanoid robotic “artist” Ai-Da spoke to the House of Lords telecommunications and digital committee on Tuesday, giving her views on how new technologies will affect the branches of art and the field of creation in general.
Billed by its makers as “the world’s first highly realistic humanoid robotic artist with artificial intelligence”, Ai-Da appeared with a woman’s face and clothes, informing British MPs that although an artificial creation, it is nevertheless capable of producing art. The robot has been created by scientists from the University of Oxford and bears the modified name of the British pioneer of IT, Ada Lovelace.
Ai-Da answered questions alongside her lead creator and art gallery director Aidan Meller at a televised parliamentary committee meeting. When asked if her creations are different from human creations, Ai-Da replied, “I am and depend on computer programs and algorithms. Although I am not alive, I can still create art.”
Sometimes the bot struggled to respond, and at one point it got completely “stuck” and had to be restarted, which probably caused some embarrassment in the Lords chamber. Earlier, committee chairwoman Tina Stowell had made it clear to the creator of Ai-Da in attendance that “the robot does not have the same status as a human and you as its creator are ultimately responsible for its statements.”
In fact, the questions to the robot were submitted to its creator before Ai-Da’s appearance in the parliamentary session, so that her answers have some substance. Each panel member took turns asking a question and getting a virtually prepared answer in advance.
Meller said the robot is “a combined collaborative personality” with “many algorithms, very different for very different tasks. It has one group of algorithms for painting pictures, another group of algorithms for talking, another group of algorithms for writing coke.”
