The famous humanoid robot Sophia painted a self-portrait that was later sold at an auction for over $688,000. The artwork is Sophia’s interpretation of her own face and it was created as an NFT (non-fungible token), a digital data unit that’s been popular lately.
The image is titled Sophia Instantiation. It was made in collaboration with artist Andrea Bonaceto, who’s also a partner at blockchain investment company Eterna Capital. She created a colorful portrait of Sophia first, and the robot then painted her own interpretation.
Sophia was developed by Hanson Robotics and has been active since 2016. She’s the first robot with a nationality (Saudi Arabian) and has appeared at many conferences and talk shows in the past.
As NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway says, the fact that she paints was “based completely on decisions she made without any human assistance.” The self-portrait wasn’t the only thing Sophia painted. Her other creations were also sold in batches of 30 for $2,500 to $3,000. She sold the artwork worth over $1 million in total.
The buyer of the most expensive piece, a digital artist known as 888, tweeted “I have goosebumps.” “Me too, we really had a connection,” replied Sophia’s official Twitter account.
