Meet Ai-Da, First Humanoid Robot to Address UK Parliament

Ai-Da, the world’s first ultra-realistic AI robot artist, was questioned by a committee in the UK Parliament this week. For the first time in history, the British Parliament witnessed a robot appear before the House of Lords, the Upper House of the UK Parliament. 

Bot Ai-Da was created by the University of Oxford’s Aidan Meller, named after the 19th-century computer pioneer and mathematician, Ada Lovelace. As part of the enquiry about the future of creative industries, the robot appeared before the UK’s Communications and Digital Committee. She answered questions about the potential threats to creativity by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technology. The humanoid robot, dressed in an orange blouse and denim dungarees, said that it is not alive, but can create and develop art.

Responding to a question, Ai-Da said, “I produce my paintings by the cameras in my eyes, my AI algorithm, and my robotic arm. For my poetry, I use neural networks, this includes analyzing a large corpus of text and using the structures and contents to generate new poems. How this differs from humans is consciousness; I do not have subjective experiences despite being able to talk about them.” 

Source: The Mirror

The robot continued to speak until a technical glitch arose mid-address rendering her cross-eyed and forcing the robot to reboot.

Speaking about her abilities, Ai-Da revealed that the cameras placed in her eyes and her robot arms work in unison with AI algorithms enabling her to paint. She added that it is her neural network that analyses a large portion of texts to identify common content and structures for creating poems. 

Member of the House of Lords Tina Stowell says, "The robot is providing evidence, but it is not a witness in its own right. And I don't want to offend the robot, but it does not occupy the same status as a human and that you, as its creator, are ultimately responsible for the statements." 

Ever since her first public appearance back in 2019 at a solo painting exhibition, Ai-Da has been upgraded to developing sculptures and poems. It also gained major recognition for painting the portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II.