The world’s first robot performance artist has been reading her own poetry at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. 

Ai-Da is the world’s first ultra-realistic artificial intelligence robot artist and this is the first time such a machine has written and performed poetry as a human poet or artist would do. 

Ai-Da was devised in Oxford by art dealer Aidan Meller, built in Cornwall by Engineered Arts in 2019, and programmed internationally.

She has realistic silicone skin, 3D-printed teeth and gums and human-like hair. She has legs but cannot walk, though she has the ability to stand upright or to sit upright in a chair. 

Her arms move freely, as does her torso and head. She can also lean forward and back, wave her arms, and look around in all directions.

She has also created several new works of art for the museum's latest exhibition using a robotic arm that draws and paints images from inbuilt cameras in her eyes.

She speaks and reads aloud using an AI language model, which draws from a vast data bank of words and speech patterns, combined with a human voice.

The three public performances are part of the Ashmolean Museum’s new Dante exhibition, marking the 700th Anniversary of the death of Florence's 14th century poet and philosopher.

Ai-Da’s poems were written using her AI in response to Dante’s Divine Comedy completed around 1320.

Extracts from poetry written by Ai-Da using her AI algorithms include the lines:  "We looked up from our verses like blindfolded captives, Sent out to seek the light; but it never came.

"A needle and thread would be necessary/For the completion of the picture.

"To view the poor creatures, who were in misery, That of a hawk, eyes sewn shut."

Oxford Mail: Ai-Da at the Giza Pyramids Egypt 4.jpg

Mr Meller is the creative director and project leader of Ai-Da Robot. He is a specialist in modern and contemporary art with over 20 years’ experience in the art world. 

He created the robot as a way of discussing the way that technology is disrupting large sections of society. 

Mr Meller said: “The greatest artists in history grappled with their period of time, and both celebrated and questioned society’s shifts.

"Ai-Da Robot, as technology, is the perfect artist today to discuss the current obsession with technology and its unfolding legacy. 

“Is the so called ‘progress’ in technology something we really want, and if so how should it manifest?”

Ai-Da Robot has had an extraordinary two years since she exploded on to the international contemporary art scene in 2019. 

Most recently, she made headlines when she travelled to Egypt to open a major contemporary art exhibition and sculpture trail at the great Pyramids of Giza. 

The painting Eyes Wide Shut is her response to her captivity in Egypt, where security forces wanted to remove the cameras in her eyes deeming them a security threat.

Dante: The Invention of Celebrity, which runs until January 9, explores how personality cults; style icons, reality TV, and the celebrity staples of our modern world can all be traced to the Divine Comedy