Why Should Humans Have All The Fun? Sophia The Robot Is Selling Her Art As NFT

For the first time, digital artwork by a robot has been put up on sale as a non-fungible token, Reuters reported Monday. 

What Happened: Sophia,  a humanoid robot by Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics, is hoping that the art will garner appreciation from humans, according to Reuters.

“I hope the people like my work, and the humans and I can collaborate in new and exciting ways going forward,” said the machine. 

The piece is called “Sophia Instantiation” and comes in the form of a 12-second MP4 file. 

The art was produced in collaboration with the Italian artist Andrea Bonaceto, who is known for his colorful portraits. Bonaceto’s art sometimes features famous people like Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk.

Sophia Instantiation shows the evolution of Bonaceto’s portrait into a digital painting made by Sophia. The work will come along with a physical piece painted by Sophia on a printout of her self-portrait, as per Reuters.

Why It Matters: Art by the robot could be “a very, very important historical piece,” according to Pablo Fraile, a Miami-based collector and an early purchaser of Beeple’s work, reported Reuters.

Beeple — whose real name is Mike Winkelmann — said Sunday that NFT art was “absolutely” in a bubble.

Winkelmann sold an NFT artwork for $69 million this month at a Christie’s auction in a sale paid for in Ethereum ETH/USD. The cryptocurrency traded 0.95% higher at $1,795.50 at press time. 

The NFT craze has enveloped everything from sneakers to Tacos and artists such as Banksy and Lindsay Lohan have sold their work in tokenized forms.

Photo by Web Summit on Flickr