Ai-Da does not paint “randomly”: it consults with the members of its studio, gathers ideas and suggests ideas. During a discussion on the theme “AI for good”, the machine proposed to paint Turing, a choice that seems less random and more inevitable, given the context. Meller says that the AI suggested the style and tones of the work, to the point of using the cameras in its eyes to observe a historical photo of Turing and reproduce it on the canvas. But it is not just a mechanical reproduction: the result, with “soft tones and broken facial planes”, seems to want to communicate the difficulties that Turing himself had special lead foreseen regarding the use of artificial intelligence, as if the machine was already anticipating the conflicts of the future.
Ai-Da's works, Meller describes, are "ethereal and disturbing." But there is not only mystery in her art: there is also an unanswered question that arises for the viewer. Where will the power of artificial intelligence really take us? And above all: how should we live in a world where the most extraordinary creations are made not by the hands of men, but by those of a machine that has neither desires nor emotions?
Ai-Da, in an interview with The Guardian in 2022, answered a question that perhaps we all ask ourselves: “Do you paint with your imagination?”. “I like to paint what I see,” the machine replied, but with an awareness that sounds almost metaphysical: “I imagine I can paint with my imagination, but only if I have consciousness.” And here, perhaps, is the crux of the matter: Ai-Da paints what she sees, but she doesn’t see like us. She doesn’t have that spark that makes art human, but she challenges us, day after day, to understand what it means to “create” today.