First artwork by humanoid robot sells for $1.3 million

Humanoid robot Ai-Da (center) is pictured with her painting of renowned English mathematician Alan Turing. (Social media photo)

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Updated 08 November 2024

AFP

November 08, 2024 04:18

First artwork by humanoid robot sells for $1.3 million

Updated 08 November 2024

AFP

November 08, 2024 04:18

REUTERS: A portrait of English mathematician Alan Turing became the first artwork by a humanoid robot to be sold at auction, fetching $1,320,000 on Thursday.
The 2.2 meter (7.5 feet) portrait “A.I. God” by “Ai-Da,” the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist, smashed pre-sale expectations of $180,000 when it went under the hammer at London auction house Sotheby’s Digital Art Sale.
“Today’s record-breaking sale price for the first artwork by a humanoid robot artist to go up for auction marks a moment in the history of modern and contemporary art and reflects the growing intersection between A.I. technology and the global art market,” said the auction house.
Ai-Da Robot, which uses AI to speak, said: “The key value of my work is its capacity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies.”
Ai-Da added that a “portrait of pioneer Alan Turing invites viewers to reflect on the god-like nature of AI and computing while considering the ethical and societal implications of these advancements.”
The ultra-realistic robot, one of the most advanced in the world, is designed to resemble a human woman with a face, large eyes and a brown wig.
Ai-Da is named after Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer and was devised by Aidan Meller, a specialist in modern and contemporary art.
“The greatest artists in history grappled with their period of time, and both celebrated and questioned society’s shifts,” said Meller.
“Ai-Da Robot as technology, is the perfect artist today to discuss the current developments with technology and its unfolding legacy,” he added.
Ai-Da generates ideas through conversations with members of the studio, and suggested creating an image of Turing during a discussion about “A.I. for good.”
The robot was then asked what style, color, content, tone and texture to use, before using cameras in its eyes to look at a picture of Turing and create the painting.
Meller led the team that created Ai-Da 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.

@AIGOD_Aida

A portrait of renowned English mathematician Alan Turing became the first artwork by a humanoid robot to be sold at auction, fetching $1,320,000 on Thursday. the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist,

Topics: AI humanoid robot Alan Turing Ai-Da Sotheby’s Digital Art Sale

SpaceX fails to repeat Starship booster catch, as Trump looks on

Updated 20 November 2024

AFP

November 19, 2024 22:50

SpaceX fails to repeat Starship booster catch, as Trump looks on

Updated 20 November 2024

AFP

November 19, 2024 22:50

BOCA CHICA: SpaceX’s Starship megarocket blasted off on its latest test flight Tuesday, with President-elect Donald Trump joining Elon Musk to witness the spectacle firsthand in the latest sign of their ever closer ties.
But the Republican leader was deprived of the chance to see the booster stage caught in the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms, an engineering marvel demonstrated by the company last month and one he personally lauded during his election victory speech.
Instead, the colossal Super Heavy first stage made a more subdued splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Company representatives cited unmet technical criteria, dampening the triumph of an event attended by a bevy of Trump-world figures, including Donald Trump Jr.
Earlier, Trump greeted Musk warmly on Tuesday afternoon, sporting a red MAGA hat as the pair headed off to watch from the control tower of the company’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, where the rocket blasted off at 4:00 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) on the sixth test flight for Starship.
SpaceX founder and CEO Musk has been a constant presence at Trump’s side since the incoming president’s election victory, joining him at a meeting with Argentina’s President Javier Milei and even at a UFC bout.
Trump’s decision to travel to Musk’s home turf was the latest sign of the growing alliance between the billionaire duo, which has raised questions over possible conflicts of interests given SpaceX’s lucrative contracts with NASA and the Pentagon.
Tuesday’s launch marked the quickest turnaround between test flights for the world’s most powerful rocket, a gleaming, 121-meter-tall (400-foot) stainless steel colossus central to Musk’s ambition of colonizing Mars and making humanity a multiplanetary species.
Musk aims to launch the first uncrewed missions to the Red Planet as early as 2026, coinciding with the next “Mars transfer window” — a period when the journey between Earth and Mars is at its shortest.
NASA is also counting on a specialized version of Starship to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade under its Artemis program.

Elon Musk speaks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (R) and guests. (Getty Images/AFP)

Flight six of Starship was seen as a test of whether SpaceX’s first booster catch was pure precision or relied on a stroke of luck after Musk — perhaps inadvertently — disclosed how close the last flight came to disaster.
In a clip posted to X showcasing his gaming chops in “Diablo IV,” sharp-eared fans caught an employee briefing him that the Super Heavy booster was “one second away” from a system failure that could have spelled catastrophe.
Starship’s upper stage will make a partial orbit of Earth, reenter the atmosphere and splash down in the Indian Ocean a little over an hour later, but this time in the daylight, providing clearer visuals for analysis.
Key milestones include reigniting Starship’s Raptor engines for the first time in space and trialing new heat shield materials. The flight also carries Starship’s first ever payload — a stuffed banana — and serves as a swan song for the current generation of Starship prototypes.
With twice the thrust of the Saturn V rockets that powered Apollo missions, Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built. Musk has already teased that its successor, Starship V3, will be “3X more powerful” and could take flight within a year.
The flight comes as Musk is riding high on Trump’s November 5 White House win, having campaigned extensively for the returning Republican leader, as well as donating staggering sums from his own fortune to the cause.
His loyalty has paid off. Musk has been tapped to co-lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” — or DOGE, a cheeky nod to the meme-based cryptocurrency Musk loves to promote.
That in turn has led to concerns Musk could engage in “self-dealing” as the CEO is poised to straddle the line between government insider and corporate titan.
Critics worry he could sway regulatory decisions to benefit his six companies, including SpaceX and its marquee Starship program, which has faced launch delays linked to an environmental review the company called “superfluous.”

Stray dogs in Giza become tourist draw after ‘pyramid puppy’ sensation

A stray dog sits in front of the Great Pyramid of Khoufou (Cheops or Keops), at the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo.

Updated 18 November 2024

AFP

November 18, 2024 01:52

Stray dogs in Giza become tourist draw after ‘pyramid puppy’ sensation

Apollo became an overnight sensation last month after being filmed scaling the Great Pyramid of Khafre
As news of Apollo’s daring climb spread worldwide, interest grew in the dogs who have long made their homes among the ancient stones

Updated 18 November 2024

AFP

November 18, 2024 01:52

CAIRO: Beneath the blazing Egyptian sun, crowds at the Giza Pyramids gazed up at the ancient wonders, but some had their eyes peeled for a new attraction.
“There he is,” one Polish tourist told his wife as they spotted a scrappy dog perched on one of the stones.
They were talking about Apollo, a stray who became an overnight sensation last month after being filmed scaling the Great Pyramid of Khafre, one of the seven wonders of the world.
The viral footage, captured by American paragliding enthusiast Alex Lang and shared online by his friend Marshall Mosher, showed Apollo fearlessly climbing the 136-meter monument, barking at birds from the summit.
“He was acting like a king,” Lang told AFP.
As news of Apollo’s daring climb spread worldwide, interest grew in the dogs who have long made their homes among the ancient stones.
“He is climbing over there,” said Arkadiusz Jurys, a tourist from Poland, craning his neck for a better view.
“It is unusual,” he added, describing Apollo as surveying the picture-snapping crowd from above.
Another visitor, Diego Vega from Argentina, felt a special bond with the dogs.
“Connecting with them feels like connecting with the pharaohs,” he said, while petting a member of Apollo’s pack.
Apollo’s newfound fame has even inspired local guides to include him and his pack in their stories for tourists.
“This is Anubis,” one tour guide told two American tourists, comparing Apollo, now known as the “pyramid puppy,” with the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, often depicted as a man with a jackal’s head.
“He and his pack are now part of our tour conversations,” said Sobhi Fakhry, another tour guide.
Businesses around the Giza plateau are also seeing a boost.
Umm Basma, a 43-year-old woman selling souvenirs near the Khafre pyramid, reported an increase in sales thanks to the influx of tourists eager to meet the so-called pyramid dogs.
“We’ve always seen these dogs climbing the pyramids, but we never thought they would become a blessing for us,” she said.
One pyramid guard, who preferred to remain anonymous, also said that some celebrities had paid for permits to have their own dogs photographed with Apollo.
Apollo, a three-year-old Baladi dog, is part of a pack of about eight that has made their home among the ancient ruins.
The dogs, a local breed, are known for their resilience, intelligence and ability to survive in Egypt’s harsh climate.
Ibrahim el-Bendary, co-founder of the American Cairo Animal Rescue Foundation, which monitors the pyramid dogs, described Apollo as the pack’s “alpha male.”
“He is the bravest and strongest in his pack,” he said.
Apollo was born in a rocky crevice within the Khafre pyramid where his mother, Laika, found shelter. Sadly, some of Apollo’s siblings did not survive the site’s perilous heights.
A sympathetic guard eventually relocated Laika to a safer spot where Apollo now stands out with his distinctive curled tail and confident nature.
The initial focus of Lang and Marshall was the daring canine climber, but their visit led to a deeper connection with Cairo’s stray dogs.
Intrigued by the challenges they face, Mosher decided to adopt a puppy from the pack: Anubi, who is Apollo’s daughter.
Anubi will join Marshall in the US after she receives the dedicated care she needs in Egypt to grow up healthy.
At the pyramids, local animal care groups are now working with the government in order to set up food and water stations for the strays, as well as for other animals including camels and horses.
A permanent veterinary center will be established at the pyramids with staff set to receive animal care training, said Egypt’s tourism minister.
Vicki Michelle Brown, the other co-founder of the American Cairo Animal Rescue Foundation, believes that Apollo’s story can make a difference.
“It sheds so much light on the dogs and cats that are here,” Brown said.
“I definitely believe him (Apollo) climbing the pyramids can help all of the dogs in Egypt to have a better life.”

Topics: Giza dogs

Law and disorder as Thai police station comes under monkey attack

Updated 18 November 2024

AFP

November 18, 2024 07:34

Law and disorder as Thai police station comes under monkey attack

The human inhabitants of Lopburi have long suffered from a growing and aggressive monkey population
Thousands of the fearless primates rule the streets around the Pra Prang Sam Yod temple in the center of Lopburi

Updated 18 November 2024

AFP

November 18, 2024 07:34

BANGKOK: in central Thailand said they barricaded themselves into their own station over the weekend, after a menacing mob of 200 escaped monkeys ran riot on the town.
The human inhabitants of Lopburi have long suffered from a growing and aggressive monkey population and authorities have built special enclosures to contain groups of the unruly residents.
But on Saturday around 200 of the primates broke out and rampaged through town, with one posse descending on a local police station.
“We’ve had to make sure doors and windows are closed to prevent them from entering the building for food,” police captain Somchai Seedee said on Monday.
He was concerned the marauders could destroy property including police documents, he added.
Traffic cops and officers on guard duty were being called in to fend off the visitors, the Lopburi police said on Facebook on Sunday.
Around a dozen of the intruders were still perched proudly on the roof of the police station on Monday, photos from local media showed.
Down in the streets, hapless police and local authorities were working to round up rogue individuals, luring them away from residential areas with food.
While Thailand is an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, it has long assimilated Hindu traditions and lore from its pre-Buddhist era.
As a result monkeys are afforded a special place in Thai hearts thanks to the heroic Hindu monkey god Hanuman, who helped Rama rescue his beloved wife Sita from the clutches of an evil demon king.
Thousands of the fearless primates rule the streets around the Pra Prang Sam Yod temple in the center of Lopburi.
The town has been laying on an annual feast of fruit for its population of macaques since the late 1980s, part religious tradition and part tourist attraction.
But their growing numbers, vandalism and mob fights have made an uneasy coexistence with their human neighbors almost intolerable.
Lopburi authorities have tried quelling instances of human-macaque clashes with sterilization and relocation programs.

Topics: wildlife Thailand

How a viral, duct-taped banana came to be worth $1 million

Updated 17 November 2024

November 17, 2024 05:44

How a viral, duct-taped banana came to be worth $1 million

Yellow banana fixed to the white wall with silver duct tape is a work entitled ‘Comedian,’ by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan
It first debuted in 2019 as an edition of three fruits at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair, where it became a much-discussed sensation

Updated 17 November 2024

November 17, 2024 05:44

NEW YORK: Walk into any supermarket and you can generally buy a banana for less than $1. But a banana duct-taped to a wall? That might sell for more than $1 million at an upcoming auction at Sotheby’s in New York.
The yellow banana fixed to the white wall with silver duct tape is a work entitled “Comedian,” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. It first debuted in 2019 as an edition of three fruits at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair, where it became a much-discussed sensation.
Was it a prank? A commentary on the state of the art world? Another artist took the banana off the wall and ate it. A backup banana was brought in. Selfie-seeking crowds became so thick, “Comedian” was withdrawn from view, but three editions of it sold for between $120,000 and $150,000, according to Perrotin gallery.
Now, the conceptual artwork has an estimated value of between $1 million and $1.5 million at Sotheby’s auction on Nov. 20. Sotheby’s head of contemporary art, David Galperin, calls it profound and provocative.
“What Cattelan is really doing is turning a mirror to the contemporary art world and asking questions, provoking thought about how we ascribe value to artworks, what we define as an artwork,” Galperin said.
Bidders won’t be buying the same fruit that was on display in Miami. Those bananas are long gone. Sotheby’s says the fruit always was meant to be replaced regularly, along with the tape.
“What you buy when you buy Cattelan’s ‘Comedian’ is not the banana itself, but a certificate of authenticity that grants the owner the permission and authority to reproduce this banana and duct tape on their wall as an original artwork by Maurizio Cattelan,” Galperin said.
The very title of the piece suggests Cattelan himself likely didn’t intend for it to be taken seriously. But Chloé Cooper Jones, an assistant professor at the Columbia University School of the Arts, said it is worth thinking about the context.
Cattelan premiered the work at an art fair, visited by well-off art collectors, where “Comedian” was sure to get a lot of attention on social media. That might mean the art constituted a dare, of sorts, to the collectors to invest in something absurd, she said.
If “Comedian” is just a tool for understanding the insular, capitalist, art-collecting world, Cooper Jones said, “it’s not that interesting of an idea.”
But she thinks it might go beyond poking fun at rich people.
Cattelan is often thought of a “trickster artist,” she said. “But his work is often at the intersection of the sort of humor and the deeply macabre. He’s quite often looking at ways of provoking us, not just for the sake of provocation, but to ask us to look into some of the sort of darkest parts of history and of ourselves.”
And there is a dark side to the banana, a fruit with a history entangled with imperialism, labor exploitation and corporate power.
“It would be hard to come up with a better, simple symbol of global trade and all of its exploitations than the banana,” Cooper Jones said. If “Comedian” is about making people think about their moral complicity in the production of objects they take for granted, then it’s “at least a more useful tool or it’s at least an additional sort of place to go in terms of the questions that this work could be asking,” she said.
“Comedian” hits the block around the same time that Sotheby’s is also auctioning one of the famed paintings in the “Water Lilies” series by the French impressionist Claude Monet, with an expected value of around $60 million.
When asked to compare Cattelan’s banana to a classic like Monet’s “Nymphéas,” Galperin says impressionism was not considered art when the movement began.
“No important, profound, meaningful artwork of the past 100 years or 200 years, or our history for that matter, did not provoke some kind of discomfort when it was first unveiled,” Galperin said.

Topics: art

Palestinians turn to local soda in boycott of Israel-linked goods

Updated 15 November 2024

AFP

November 15, 2024 09:37

Palestinians turn to local soda in boycott of Israel-linked goods

Chat Cola has tapped into Palestinians’ desire to shun brands perceived as too supportive of Israel
The Palestinian economy’s dependence on Israeli products has made a broader boycott difficult

Updated 15 November 2024

AFP

November 15, 2024 09:37

SALFIT, Palestinian Territories: In a red box factory that stands out among the drab hills of the West Bank, Chat Cola’s employees race to quench Palestinians’ thirst for local products since the Gaza war erupted last year.
With packaging reminiscent of Coca-Cola’s iconic red and white aluminum cans, Chat Cola has tapped into Palestinians’ desire to shun brands perceived as too supportive of Israel.
“The demand for (Chat Cola) increased since the war began because of the boycott,” owner Fahed Arar, said at the factory in the occupied West Bank town of Salfit.
Julien, a restaurateur in the city of Ramallah further south, said he has stocked his classic red Coca-Cola branded fridge with the local alternative since the war began in October last year.
Supermarket manager Mahmud Sidr described how sales of Palestinian products surged over the past year.
“We noticed an increase in sales of Arab and Palestinian products that do not support (Israel),” he said.
Although it does not supply Israeli troops in Gaza with free goods — as some US fast food brands have been rumored to — Coca-Cola is perceived as simply too American.
The United States provides enormous military assistance to Israel, aid that has continued through the devastating military campaign in Gaza that Israel launched in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack of October 7, 2023.
Coca-Cola did not respond to a request for comment, but it says the company does not support religion nor “any political causes, governments or nation states.”
A manager of the National Beverage Company, the Palestinian firm bottling Coca-Cola in the Palestinian territories, said the company had not noticed the return of many products from local stores.
There was however a decline of up to 80 percent in the drink’s sales to foreign-named chains, said the manager, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The national boycott movement has had a big impact,” Arar said.
Ibrahim Al-Qadi, head of the Palestinian economy ministry’s consumer protection department, said that 300 tons of Israeli products were destroyed over the past three months after passing their sell-by date for want of buyers.
The Palestinian economy’s dependence on Israeli products has made a broader boycott difficult and Chat Cola’s popularity partly stems from being one of the few quality Palestinian alternatives.
“There’s a willingness to boycott if the Palestinian producers can produce equivalently good quality and price,” the head of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, Raja Khalidi, said.
Khalidi said the desire for Palestinian substitutes has grown sharply since the war in Gaza began, but is stifled by “an issue of production capacity which we lack.”
A boycott campaign has been more successful in neighboring Arab states less dependent on Israeli goods.
In neighboring Jordan, the franchisee of French retail giant Carrefour, Dubai-based conglomerate Majid Al-Futtaim Group announced it was shutting down all its operations after activists called for a boycott.
Chat Cola’s Arar is proud of developing a quality Palestinian product.
Staff at the company’s Salfit factory wear sweaters emblazoned with the words “Palestinian taste” in Arabic and the Palestinian flag.
After opening the factory in 2019, Arar plans to open a new one in Jordan to meet international demand and avoid the complications of operating in the occupied West Bank.
Although the plant still turns out thousands of cans of Chat, one production line has been shut down for more than a month.
Israeli authorities have held up a large shipment of raw materials at the Jordanian border, hitting output, Arar said, adding he can meet only 10 to 15 percent of demand for his product.
As Arar spoke, Israeli air defenses intercepted a rocket likely launched from Lebanon, creating a small cloud in view of the plant.
But with war have come opportunities.
“There has never been the political support for buying local that there is now, so it’s a good moment for other entrepreneurs to start up,” economist Khalidi said.

Topics: War on Gaza Palestine

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How a viral, duct-taped banana came to be worth $1 million

How a viral, duct-taped banana came to be worth $1 million

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First artwork by humanoid robot sells for $1.3 million

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