In what one might call yet another breaking of the glass ceiling by artificial intelligence, the humanoid Ai-Da robot became the first of its kind to write poetry on its own and then perform it in front of a live audience. Touted by its makers as the world's first ultra-realistic robot artist, Ai-Da first made waves with a solo show at the University of Oxford back in 2019. The feminine-looking robot created the art without any human supervision. It eventually grossed over a million dollars in sales.
Praised to be a "vision of the future," the robot was famously detained by the Egyptian security forces just over a month ago, citing security issues over the cameras doubling as its eyes. These cameras make it possible for the robot to create self-portraits. The images got a lot of media coverage for their accurate depiction upon being showcased at an art exhibition in London. And unlike the Tesla Bot, this one challenges the very notion of art being an exclusive heritage of humanity. While the debate goes on, Ai-Da has added another talent to its repertoire — writing poetry.
The robot — which flaunts a realistic silicone skin, 3D-printed teeth, and a bob hairdo — recently recited poetry it composed based on its analysis of Dante's Divine Comedy, written about seven centuries ago. As part of the Ashmolean Museum's latest exhibition, the robot wrote her own poem as a response to Dante's work and then performed like a human poet would, reports The Guardian. Here is what one of the algorithm-generated compositions says: "A needle and thread would be necessary / For the completion of the picture. / To view the poor creatures, who were in misery, / That of a hawk, eyes sewn shut."
So Good That Its Creator Is Concerned
Aidan Meller, the human brain behind the artificial intelligence mind, says that all the words are Ai-Da's own and have been generated using a language processing model. In fact, Meller suggests that Ai-Da's AI is so advanced that "restricted editing" has to be implemented. He adds that Ai-Da is capable of writing a 20,000-word composition in just ten seconds. In a separate interaction with CNN, Meller claimed that Ai-Da is so good at the job that one can't discern whether a human being or a robot wrote a sample. Going a step further, he added that the debate is not around how human Ai-Da can get, but how robotic humans have become.
However, the creator of Ai-Da also sounds alarmed by the rapid pace at which language models for AI are improving. "We are going very rapidly to the point where they will be completely indistinguishable from human text, and for all of us who write, this is deeply concerning," Meller was quoted as saying. Moreover, experts have already predicted that controlling a super-intelligent AI would be a futile attempt. The likes of Elon Musk have even warned about a rogue artificial intelligence taking over at some point.
Sources: The Guardian, CNN