NFT Digital Artwork By Humanoid Robot Sophia Up For Auction - AI Summary

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Robot artist Sophia, whose first artwork goes up for auction on Wednesday, says she draws inspiration for her work from people and is open to future creative partnerships with humans. Sophia, who was unveiled in 2016, produced her art in collaboration with 31-year-old Italian digital artist Andrea Bonaceto, known for colourful portraits, some of which depict famous people, such as Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk. Called "Sophia Instantiation", the digital work is a 12-second MP4 file showing the evolution of Bonaceto's portrait into Sophia's digital painting, and is accompanied by a physical artwork, painted by Sophia on a printout of her self-portrait. Bonaceto said the collaboration aimed "to make a statement in the art world, and even the technology world," heralding a new road on which AI robots and humans collaborate, enhancing each other. Sophia's art could be "a very, very important historical piece," said Pablo Fraile, an art collector based in Miami and an early buyer of Beeple, as American artist Mike Winkelmann, creator of the NFT work sold this month for millions, is known.