Portrait painted by an AI sells for $432,000 at Christie's in New York

Christie's has sold a portrait painted by an AI for an eye watering $432,500. The AI-generated'Portrait of Edmond Belamy' depicts a slightly blurry, chubby man in a dark frock-coat and white collar. Christie's said the winning bidder wanted to remain anonymous, but confirmed the price skyrocketed after a five way bidding battle on the phones and via ChristiesLive. Pierre Fautrel, a member of the French art collective Obvious, poses in front of'Portrait d'Edmond Belamy,' an image created using Artificial Intelligence'Behold the future--here it is,' the auctioneer declared before the bidding started on the piece. The artwork is one of a group of portraits of the fictional Belamy family created by a Paris-based trio of 25-year-olds known as Obvious. According to an online catalog on Christie's website, the painting had been estimated to go for $7,000-$10,000.