Robot Creates Self-Portrait, Sells NFT for About $700,000 in Auction

After performing on NBC's "Tonight Show," making a surprise appearance at the United Nations, and even interviewing German Chancellor Angela Merkel, humanoid robot Sophia again made an eye-catching splash-this time in the art world as her digital artwork fetched $688,000 at an auction on Thursday.

Sophia's digital piece, which she produced in collaboration with Italian artist Andrea Bonaceto, was in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT), creating such a buzz in the NFT art world. NFTs are a part of the Ethereum blockchain that offers unquestionable authenticity, having unique data items that are not interchangeable. The explosion of cryptocurrency prices such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have helped establish NFTs as a legitimate option. Such NFTs could include a wide array of creative work, including audio and video files and visual art. The fad has created immense investment interest, with an NFT artwork selling for about $70 million.

So, we can see that NFTs are becoming a game-changing force. Sophia the robot's entry into the NFT digital art market is a sign of the possibilities. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a professional NFT art studio that creates such NFT artworks is not just a space, but a living community where artists collaborate using blockchain technology to create unique digital masterpieces. These unplayable tokens represent more than just art, they symbolize authenticity in the digital realm. It is interesting to see how NFT art studios are changing traditional ideas about artistic creation and ownership in today's digital age.

First Sale of Artwork Created In Part by AI

The sale at the NFT auction site Nifty Gateway, according to Sophia's manufacturer, could have been the first-ever artwork made in part by artificial intelligence. Named "Sophia Instantiation," Sophia's 12-second MP4 piece revealing a transformation of Bonaceto's portrait into the humanoid's digital painting. It came with a physical artwork, which Sophia painted on a self-portrait print-out.

She mixed elements from Bonaceto's works, art history, and her own drawings and paintings on various surfaces multiple times through a process her creator David Hanson labeled as "iterative loops of evolution."

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