- The Rundown AI
- Posts
- Humanoid robot makes art history
Humanoid robot makes art history
PLUS: Claude enlists in the AI military wave
Rowan Cheung
November 08, 2024
Sign Up | Advertise | Podcast | AI University
Welcome, AI enthusiasts.
The art world just witnessed a $1.3M reality check from an unexpected painter — a humanoid robot named Ai-Da.
As traditional notions of creativity and authorship get challenged, is the AI and robotics boom about to usher in a new artistic era? Let’s get into it…
In today’s AI rundown:
AI robot artwork shatters auction estimates
Anthropic expands Claude AI to defense sector
Transform research tabs into reports
ByteDance unveils powerful AI portrait animator
6 new AI tools & 4 new AI jobs
More AI & tech news
Read time: 4 minutes
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
AI, ROBOTICS & ART
Image source: Sotheby’s
The Rundown: Humanoid robot artist Ai-da just made history at Sotheby’s Auction House, with its portrait of computer science pioneer Alan Turning selling for $1.3M — marking the first major auction sale of a robot-created artwork.
The details:
The "AI God" painting sparked intense bidding interest with 27 offers, selling for nearly 10x the originally estimated value of $120,000 to $180,000.
The piece combines traditional portrait artistry with AI-driven techniques, using cameras in Ai-Da's eyes and robotic arms to capture and create the image.
The work is part of a larger series examining humanity's relationship with technology, and the work was previously exhibited at the UN's AI for Good Summit.
Sotheby’s said the artwork is the first by a humanoid robot artist, and Ai-Da commented that it ‘serves as a dialogue about emerging technologies.’
Why it matters: Is the world ready to embrace non-human artists? If you’ve seen the reactions to AI artwork on social media, the answer is probably not, but it's clear some are ready to challenge traditional notions of creativity and authorship. One day, pieces like Ai-Da’s may be historical artifacts from the early days of the AI and robotics boom.
TOGETHER WITH NORTHERN DATA GROUP
The Rundown: Northern Data Group offers AI-ready compute powered entirely by clean energy — ensuring unparalleled performance without compromising on sustainability.
With Northern Data, you can:
Access high-performance NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs for demanding AI workloads
Operated in Europe for full sovereignty and compliance
Ensure security and regulatory compliance with a secure infrastructure
Deliver the best outcomes for both users and the planet
Start powering your AI responsibly and get started with Northern Data Group today.
ANTHROPIC
Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown
The Rundown: Anthropic just announced a major partnership with Palantir and AWS to bring its Claude AI models to U.S. intelligence and defense agencies, joining Meta and OpenAI in the tech’s shifting role within government operations.
The details:
Claude will be integrated into Palantir’s IL6 platform powered by AWS, one of the highest security environments designed for classified government ops.
The move allows defense agencies to leverage AI for complex data analysis, pattern recognition, document processing, and rapid intelligence assessment.
Special policies are crafted to enable foreign intelligence analysis and threat detection, with weapons development and cyber operations restrictions.
Access will be limited to authorized personnel in classified environments, with security protocols and strict compliance in place.
Why it matters: AI firms have historically been cautious about intertwining with military applications, but with OpenAI, Meta, and now Anthropic operating with the government and defense contractors, the floodgates have opened. Having access to top AI models quickly becomes a massive security and military advantage.
AI TRAINING
The Rundown: NotebookLM can turn your browser tabs and research materials into well-organized, AI-powered briefs and reports.
Step-by-step:
Head over to Google’s NotebookLM and create a new notebook.
Add your open browser tabs by pasting URLs as sources.
Generate an initial brief with a structured prompt (e.g., "Write a 1-page brief on [topic] with key trends, examples, and implications").
Refine with focused follow-up prompts targeting specific industries or perspectives.
Pro tip: Create a customized Audio Overview for stakeholder-specific summaries and export your insights.
PRESENTED BY MONGODB
The Rundown: MongoDB’s Atlas 8.0 empowers you to query and analyze unstructured data seamlessly, integrating AI capabilities directly into your database operations. It’s also recognized as the most-loved vector search tool by developers (Retool, 2024)!
With Atlas 8.0, you can:
Query all your unstructured data efficiently
Create vector embeddings with your favorite models
Use the vector database for RAG, semantic search, recommendations, and more
Try the quickstart now and see how Atlas 8.0 can enhance your applications.
AI RESEARCH
Image source: ByteDance
The Rundown: ByteDance just revealed X-Portrait 2, an AI system that can transform static images into expressive animated performances by mapping facial movements onto a driving video.
The details:
X-Portrait 2 requires just a single reference video to ‘drive’ the motion and an image to transform into a new character or style.
The system can transfer subtle facial expressions and complex movements like pouting, frowning, and tongue movements with realism and fluidity.
X-Portrait 2 works across realistic portraits and cartoon characters, opening possibilities for animation, virtual agents, and visual effects.
The update builds on the July release of X-Portrait 1 and could potentially be integrated into TikTok as a free competitor to larger AI avatar/lip sync platforms.
Why it matters: We’re not far off from professional-grade character animation being accessible to anyone — with wild implications for both content creation and creativity as a whole. But with nearly indistinguishable levels of lip-syncing and character transfer, will the world lose its sense of true ‘reality’ in the process?
NEW TOOLS & JOBS
🛍️ CommercePro by CapCut - Generate shoppable video ads, product images, and social content from a product link
📝 PaperGen - Create AI-generated long-form papers featuring citations, charts, and more with originality, clarity, and precision
👨🏻✈️ CopilotKit (feat. CoAgents) – Build AI copilots and agents into any React application
⚙️ PromptQL - A data access agent to build AI assistants on any data
🖍️ ColorPageAI - Create custom coloring pages in seconds with AI
🛡️ TaskUs - Head of Quality, AI Data Operations
📊 The Rundown - Partnerships Manager
🤖 Meta - AI Research Scientist, Computer Vision
✍️ Rad AI - Technical Writer
💼 OpenAI - Revenue Operations Manager
QUICK HITS
Microsoft began integrating Copilot AI features into standard Microsoft 365 subscriptions in certain Asia-Pacific markets, signaling a potential shift away from its separate Copilot Pro subscription model.
Black Forest Labs launched a new upgrade to its FLUX1.1 pro model, featuring a new ‘Ultra’ mode for 4x higher image resolution in text-to-image generations and a ‘raw’ mode for more realistic generations.
Fast-food giant Wendy’s is partnering with Palantir to deploy an AI-powered supply chain management system that predicts shortages and automates inventory ordering.
Mistral debuted a new multi-language content moderation API that powers its Le Chat platform, helping developers implement safety guardrails in applications across nine policy categories.
Krea AI added custom model training capabilities, allowing users to create personalized AI models to learn specific characters, artistic styles, and product designs.
Chinese EV maker XPENG unveiled Iron, a nearly 6-foot-tall robot equipped with dexterous hands and the company's Turing AI chip, already deployed in its vehicle factory alongside its autonomous driving technology.
Nous Research launched its first public chatbot interface called Nous Chat, powered by its Hermes 3-70B model.
THAT’S A WRAP
That's it for today!Before you go we’d love to know what you thought of today's newsletter to help us improve The Rundown experience for you. |
See you soon,
Reply