You are here

  • Home
  • Portrait by humanoid robot to sell at auction in art world first

Portrait by humanoid robot to sell at auction in art world first

Portrait by humanoid robot to sell at auction in art world first
Ultra-realistic AI robot Ai-Da poses in front of a painting she made during the press preview of the London Design Biennale 2023 at Somerset House, central London, on June 1, 2023. The robot artist Ai-Da, a humanoid powered by artificial intelligence, will on October 16, 2024 be the first of its kind to have a painting sold at a major auction house. (AFP)
Short Url

https://arab.news/8up2u

Updated 45 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Portrait by humanoid robot to sell at auction in art world first

Portrait by humanoid robot to sell at auction in art world first
  • The ultra-realistic robot is designed to resemble a human female with a face, large eyes and a brown wig
Updated 45 sec ago
AFP
Follow

LONDON: The robot artist Ai-Da, a humanoid powered by artificial intelligence, will be the first of its kind to have a painting sold at a major auction house, organizers said Wednesday.
The work, due to go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London next month, is described as a “haunting” portrait of the English mathematician Alan Turing, considered one of the fathers of modern computing.
Entitled “AI God,” the 2.2 meter (7.5 ft) high portrait is expected to fetch between £100,000 and £150,000 ($130,000 and $196,000).
The online sale, featuring a range of digital art forms, would explore the intersection between art and technology, according to Sotheby’s.
The ultra-realistic robot is designed to resemble a human female with a face, large eyes and a brown wig and is one of the most advanced in the world.
It works by using AI algorithms and has cameras in its eyes and bionic hands.
Aidan Meller, gallery owner and founder of Ai-Da Robot studio, led the team that created it with artificial intelligence specialists at the universities of Oxford and Birmingham in England.
Meller said Turing, who made his name as a World War II codebreaker, mathematician and early computer scientist, had raised concerns about the use of AI in the 1950s.
The artwork’s “muted tones and broken facial planes” seemingly suggested “the struggles Turing warned we will face when it comes to managing AI,” he said.
Ai-Da’s works were “ethereal and haunting” and “continue to question where the power of AI will take us, and the global race to harness its power,” he added.
In 2022, Ai-Da painted portraits of the acts headlining Glastonbury Festival including Billie Eilish, Diana Ross, Kendrick Lamar and Paul McCartney.
Sotheby’s Digital Art Sale runs from October 31 to November 7.

Topics: Ai-Da

Related

World’s first humanoid artist Ai-Da speaks at Culture Summit Abu Dhabi
Lifestyle
World’s first humanoid artist Ai-Da speaks at Culture Summit Abu Dhabi
The new Picasso? Meet Ai-Da the robot artist photos
Science & Technology
The new Picasso? Meet Ai-Da the robot artist

‘Mysterious black balls’ close Sydney beach

‘Mysterious black balls’ close Sydney beach
Updated 8 min 24 sec ago
AFP
Follow

‘Mysterious black balls’ close Sydney beach

‘Mysterious black balls’ close Sydney beach
Updated 8 min 24 sec ago
AFP

SYDNEY: Hundreds of mysterious black tar-like balls have washed up on a popular Sydney beach, prompting lifeguards to close the strand to swimmers.
“Mysterious, black, ball-shaped debris” began appearing on Coogee Beach on Tuesday afternoon the local mayor said, leaving flummoxed authorities scrambling to find out what they might be, and where they may have come from.
“Coogee Beach is closed until further notice,” Mayor Dylan Parker said in a social media post.
Hundreds of golf-to-cricket-ball-sized spheres could be seen littering the length of sand, which is usually thronged with Sydneysiders and tourists.
Instead, a few seagulls wandered among the spheres, pecking and examining.
“At this stage, it is unknown what the material is, however, they may be ‘tar balls’ which are formed when oil comes in to contact with debris and water, typically the result of oil spills or seepage,” Parker said.
The beach remained closed Wednesday morning despite an overnight cleanup effort.
Other nearby beaches were being monitored but remain open.
“Beachgoers are advised to avoid Coogee Beach until further notice and not touch the material, while the clean-up and investigations continue,” Dylan Parker said.

Topics: beach

Related

Partial remains of British climber believed found 100 years after Everest ascent
Offbeat
Partial remains of British climber believed found 100 years after Everest ascent
A Hong Kong zoo seeks answers after 9 monkeys die in 2 days
Offbeat
A Hong Kong zoo seeks answers after 9 monkeys die in 2 days

Sri Lanka carrier grounds captain after mid-air argument

Sri Lanka carrier grounds captain after mid-air argument
Updated 15 October 2024
AFP
Follow

Sri Lanka carrier grounds captain after mid-air argument

Sri Lanka carrier grounds captain after mid-air argument
  • Captain clashes with the female copilot over her stepping out without arranging another crew member to accompany him in the cockpit
  • Cabin crew had to persuade the captain to let the first officer back into her seat on the Airbus A330
Updated 15 October 2024
AFP

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s national airline grounded a captain after he locked out his female copilot when she took a toilet break during a flight from Sydney to Colombo, officials said.
Sri Lanka’s aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), had initiated an investigation.
“The airline is fully cooperating with the relevant authorities, and the captain has been grounded pending the outcome of the investigation,” SriLankan Airlines said in a statement.
The captain clashed with the female copilot over her stepping out without arranging another crew member to accompany him in the cockpit, in line with standard operating procedures, an airline source said.
Cabin crew had to persuade the captain to let the first officer back into her seat on the Airbus A330.
The two-pilot aircraft landed without incident.
The cash-strapped carrier has been plagued with chronic delays and shortages of technical crew after it ran out of money to pay for refurbished engines for some of its grounded aircraft.
Successive governments have tried to sell off the debt-laden carrier.
The International Monetary Fund demanded the restructuring of loss-making state enterprises, including SriLankan airlines, when it granted Colombo a $2.9 billion bailout last year.
The bailout came after the South Asian island defaulted on its $46 billion external debt in April 2022 as it faced an unprecedented shortage of foreign exchange needed for essential imports.
With nearly 6,000 staff, SriLankan Airlines is the biggest and most expensive of the cash-haemorrhaging companies that are draining the budget.
However, analysts had warned that finding a company willing to pour money into the carrier would be immensely challenging given its history of interference, mismanagement and turbulent partnerships.

Topics: aviation Sri Lanka SriLankan Airlines

Related

SriLankan Airlines to commence daily direct flights to Melbourne
Corporate News
SriLankan Airlines to commence daily direct flights to Melbourne
Sri Lanka probes corruption at national carrier
Business & Economy
Sri Lanka probes corruption at national carrier

A Hong Kong zoo seeks answers after 9 monkeys die in 2 days

A Hong Kong zoo seeks answers after 9 monkeys die in 2 days
Updated 15 October 2024
AP
Follow

A Hong Kong zoo seeks answers after 9 monkeys die in 2 days

A Hong Kong zoo seeks answers after 9 monkeys die in 2 days
Updated 15 October 2024
AP

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s oldest zoo is seeking answers in a monkey medical mystery after nine animals died in two days, including three members of a critically endangered species.
Part of the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens has been sealed off and disinfected, and experts have been called in to conduct necropsies and toxicological tests, Hong Kong leader John Lee said in his weekly press briefing Tuesday.
Eight monkeys were found dead on Sunday, and another died Monday after unusual behavior. The deceased animals included a De Brazza’s monkey, a common squirrel monkey, four white-faced sakis and three cotton-top tamarins — a species listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
“Whenever we have any news, if there’s a new development, an announcement should be made as soon as possible, so that everyone can know about the facts,” Lee said.
On Monday, the government held an urgent interdepartmental meeting about the deaths. It said in a statement that another De Brazza’s monkey’s behavior and appetite were found to be unusual, requiring further observation.
But all 80 other animals in the gardens were in normal condition, it added.
Jason Baker, senior vice president of animal rights group PETA Asia, said the deaths raised concerns about a possible outbreak of a zoonotic disease such as monkeypox, which can jump from animals to humans.
“Monkeys in captivity are often exposed to pathogens that cause diseases that can be transmitted to humans, including tuberculosis, Chagas disease, cholera and MRSA,” he said in a statement.
He said the only way to ensure the well-being of animals and prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases is to stop confining them in unnatural environments.
The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens — the oldest park in the former British colony — fully opened to the public in 1871. It is a rare urban oasis in the downtown Central district of the financial hub which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Related

Thai baby hippo Internet star draws thousands to her zoo
Offbeat
Thai baby hippo Internet star draws thousands to her zoo
Gaza zookeeper fears for his animals after fleeing Rafah
Middle-East
Gaza zookeeper fears for his animals after fleeing Rafah

Boeing will lay off 10% of its employees as a strike by factory workers cripples airplane production

Boeing will lay off 10% of its employees as a strike by factory workers cripples airplane production
Updated 12 October 2024
AP
Follow

Boeing will lay off 10% of its employees as a strike by factory workers cripples airplane production

Boeing will lay off 10% of its employees as a strike by factory workers cripples airplane production
  • Boeing has lost more than $25 billion since the start of 2019.
Updated 12 October 2024
AP

Boeing plans to lay off about 10% of its workers in the coming months as it continues to lose money and tries to deal with a strike that is crippling production of the company’s best-selling airline planes.
New CEO Kelly Ortberg told staff in a memo Friday that the job cuts, which could total about 17,000 positions, will include executives, managers and employees.
The company has about 170,000 employees worldwide, many of them working in manufacturing facilities in the states of Washington and South Carolina.
Boeing had already imposed rolling temporary furloughs, but Ortberg said those will be suspended because of the impending layoffs.
The company will delay the rollout of a new plane, the 777X, to 2026 instead of 2025. It will also stop building the cargo version of its 767 jet in 2027 after finishing current orders.
Boeing has lost more than $25 billion since the start of 2019.
About 33,000 union machinists have been on strike since Sept. 14. Two days of talks this week failed to produce a deal, and Boeing filed an unfair-labor-practices charge against the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
As it announced layoffs, Boeing also gave a preliminary report on its third-quarter financial results — and the news is not good for the company.
Boeing said it burned through $1.3 billion in cash during the quarter and lost $9.97 per share. Industry analysts had been expecting the company to lose $1.61 per share in the quarter, according to a FactSet survey, but analysts were likely unaware of some large write-downs that Boeing announced Friday.
The company based in Arlington, Virginia, said it had $10.5 billion in cash and marketable securities on Sept. 30.
The strike has a direct bearing on cash burn because Boeing gets half or more of the price of planes when it delivers them to airline customers. The strike has shut down production of the 737 Max, Boeing's best-selling plane, and 777x and 767s. The company is still making 787s at a nonunion plant in South Carolina.
“Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together,” Ortberg told staff. He said the situation “requires tough decisions and we will have to make structural changes to ensure we can stay competitive and deliver for our customers over the long term.”

Partial remains of British climber believed found 100 years after Everest ascent

Partial remains of British climber believed found 100 years after Everest ascent
Updated 11 October 2024
AP
Follow

Partial remains of British climber believed found 100 years after Everest ascent

Partial remains of British climber believed found 100 years after Everest ascent
  • The expedition found a foot encased in a sock embroidered with “AC Irvine“
  • The pair, who were seeking to become the first people to conquer Everest, were last seen around 245 meters from the summit before they disappeared
Updated 11 October 2024
AP

LONDON: The partial remains of a British mountaineer who might — or might not — have been one of the first two people to climb Mount Everest are believed to have been found a century after their ascent of the world’s highest peak, according to an expedition led by National Geographic.
Ahead of the release of a documentary film, the television channel said Friday that the expedition found a foot encased in a sock embroidered with “AC Irvine” and a boot that could be that of Andrew “Sandy” Irvine, who disappeared at the age of 22 along with his co-climber, the legendary George Mallory, near Everest’s peak on June 8, 1924.
The pair, who were seeking to become the first people to conquer Everest, were last seen around 800 feet (245 meters) from the summit before they disappeared. Their fate has been debated by climbers and historians alike, with some postulating that they had stood atop of the world before heading down and disappearing.
Mallory’s body was found in 1999 but there was no evidence that could point to the two having reached Everest’s summit at 29,032 feet (8,849 meters).
There is still no such evidence, though the apparent discovery of Irvine’s remains could narrow the search for a Kodak Vest Pocket camera lent to the climbers by expedition member Howard Somervell. For mountaineers, it’s the equivalent of the Holy Grail — whether there is photographic proof on that camera to show that the two did reach the summit before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
The sock and boot were found at a lower altitude than Mallory’s remains, on the Central Rongbuk Glacier below the North Face of Mount Everest.
“This was a monumental and emotional moment for us and our entire team on the ground, and we just hope this can finally bring peace of mind to his relatives and the climbing world at large,” said climb team member and National Geographic explorer Jimmy Chin.
Chin did not say exactly where the remains were found because he wants to discourage trophy hunters. But he’s confident that other items — and maybe even the camera — are nearby.
“It certainly reduces the search area,” he told National Geographic.
The Irvine family has volunteered to compare DNA test results with the remains to confirm his identity.
His great-niece and biographer, Julie Summers, said she reacted emotionally when she found out about the discovery.
“I have lived with this story since I was a 7-year-old when my father told us about the mystery of Uncle Sandy on Everest,” she said. “When Jimmy told me that he saw the name AC Irvine on the label on the sock inside the boot, I found myself moved to tears. It was and will remain an extraordinary and poignant moment.”
The find, made by Chin along with climbers and filmmakers Erich Roepke and Mark Fisher, was reported to the London-based Royal Geographical Society, which jointly organized Mallory’s and Irvine’s expedition along with the Alpine Club.
“As joint organizer of the 1924 Everest expedition, the society deeply appreciates the respect Jimmy Chin’s team has shown Sandy Irvine’s remains and their sensitivity toward Sandy’s family members and others connected to that expedition,” said Joe Smith, director of the society.
The partial remains are now in the possession of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association, which is responsible for climbing permits on Everest’s northern side.

Topics: Mount Everest British mountaineer

Related

Beyond Everest — discovering Nepal as a non-trekker 
Lifestyle
Beyond Everest — discovering Nepal as a non-trekker 
Nepal’s ‘Everest Man’ claims record 30th summit
World
Nepal’s ‘Everest Man’ claims record 30th summit

Latest updates

‘Mysterious black balls’ close Sydney beach
‘Mysterious black balls’ close Sydney beach
Harris mocks Trump after rally turns into bizarre dance-a-thon
Harris mocks Trump after rally turns into bizarre dance-a-thon
Winners of women’s and men’s taekwondo events crowned at Saudi Games
Winners of women’s and men’s taekwondo events crowned at Saudi Games
Meta must face US state lawsuits over teen social media addiction
Photo/Shutterstock
Solar companies gather in Riyadh to advance Kingdom’s net zero plan
Solar companies gather in Riyadh to advance Kingdom’s net zero plan

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2024 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.