October 11, 2022, was not your typical day at the UK House of Lords, where Ai-Da, a humanoid robot artist, delivered testimony in response to questions posed by peers. The testimony came as some of Ai-Da’s original artwork was displayed in a museum. In her answers, Ai-Da was candid about AI’s threat to human artists but was also realistic about the role technology has always played in art. In this short mid-week episode, Neville and Shel review the testimony and explore some of the issues Ai-Da raises.

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The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, October 17.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this report:

• AI robot Ai-Da is about to make history giving evidence to a House of Lords inquiry
• Ai-Da robot makes history by giving evidence to parliamentary inquiry
• Ai-Da the robot turned on and off again during historic speech in House of Lords
• I’ve seen a few robotic performances in Parliament, but this will take some beating
• The Artist in the Machine? Meet ‘Ai-Da,’ the AI robot debuting her work in London’s Design Museum
• ‘Mind-blowing’: Ai-Da becomes first robot to paint like an artist
• Ai-Da: Portrait of the Robot
• The Intersection of Art and AI | Ai-Da Robot | TEDxOxford

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