At the recent unveiling of a new oil painting titled Algorithm King, humanoid robot Ai-Da presented her interpretation of King Charles, emphasising the monarch’s commitment to environmentalism and interfaith dialogue. The portrait, showcased at the UK’s diplomatic mission in Geneva, was created using a blend of AI algorithms and traditional artistic inspiration.
Ai-Da, designed with a human-like face and robotic limbs, has captured public attention since becoming the first humanoid robot to sell artwork at auction, with a portrait of mathematician Alan Turing fetching over $1 million. Despite her growing profile in the art world, Ai-Da insists she poses no threat to human creativity, positioning her work as a platform to spark discussion on the ethical use of AI.
Speaking at the UN’s AI for Good summit, the robot artist stressed that her creations aim to inspire responsible innovation and critical reflection on the intersection of technology and culture.
‘The value of my art lies not in monetary worth,’ she said, ‘but in how it prompts people to think about the future of creativity.’
Ai-Da’s creator, art specialist Aidan Meller, reiterated that the project is an ethical experiment rather than an attempt to replace human artists. Echoing that sentiment, Ai-Da concluded, ‘I hope my work encourages a positive, thoughtful use of AI—always mindful of its limits and risks.’
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At Antwerp Art Weekend, two standout exhibitions by Eddie Peake and the Amsterdam-based collective Metahaven explored how meaning shifts or falls apart in an age shaped by AI, identity, and emotional complexity.
Metahaven’s film follows a character interacting with an AI assistant while exploring poetry by Eugene Ostashevsky. It contrasts AI’s predictive language models with the unpredictable nature of poetry, using visual metaphors to expose how AI mimics language without fully grasping it.
Meanwhile, Peake’s immersive installation at TICK TACK turned the Belgian gallery into a psychological labyrinth, combining architectural intrusion, raw paintings, and a haunting audio piece. His work considers the weight of identity, sexuality, and memory, moving from aggression to vulnerability.
Despite their differences, both projects provoke questions about how language, identity, and emotion are formed and fractured. Each invites viewers to reconsider the boundaries of expression in a world increasingly influenced by AI and abstraction.
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Triplegangers, was forced offline after a bot from OpenAI relentlessly scraped its website, treating it like a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The AI bot sent tens of thousands of server requests, attempting to download hundreds of thousands of detailed 3D images and descriptions from the company’s extensive database of digital human models.
The sudden spike in traffic crippled Ukrainian Triplegangers’ servers and left CEO Oleksandr Tomchuk grappling with an unexpected problem. The company, which sells digital assets to video game developers and 3D artists, discovered that OpenAI’s bot operated across hundreds of IP addresses to gather its data. Despite having terms of service that forbid such scraping, the company had not configured the necessary robot.txt file to block the bot.
After days of disruption, Tomchuk implemented protective measures by updating the robot.txt file and using Cloudflare to block specific bots. However, he remains frustrated by the lack of transparency from OpenAI and the difficulty in determining exactly what data was taken. With rising costs and increased monitoring now necessary, he warns that other businesses remain vulnerable.
Tomchuk criticised AI companies for placing the responsibility on small businesses to block unwanted scraping, comparing it to a digital shakedown. “They should be asking permission, not just scraping data,” he said, urging companies to take greater precautions against AI crawlers that can compromise their sites.
