Series created by the graphic designer Václav Kudělka, to show how the world's most famous social networks and websites might look under Russia's efforts to distance itself from the Western world, combined with national pride.

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👉 Formula 1 terminates contract with Russian Grand Prix

👉 Uber will offer free rides between Ukraine-Poland border and two Polish cities

👉 Bolt reduced the commission for all services in Ukraine to zero

👉 Dutch ING, Poland's mBank and BNP Paribas's waive or refund fees for transfers into Ukraine

👉 Apple Halts Product Sales in Russia

👉 Polish PKP Intercity trains carry Ukrainian citizens for free from the border

👉 Deutsche Bahn is offering free travel on its long-distance trains from Poland to Germany.

👉 FlixBus offer free rides (regardless of citizenship) to those in need

👉 Wizz Air is offering 100.000 free seats from neighbouring countries

👉 Google disabled Google Maps tools which provide live information about traffic conditions and how busy different places are.

👉 Moyee's new coffee blend condemns Putin's aggression and supports refugees

👉 Airbnb to Provide Accommodation for 100,000 Ukrainian Refugees

👉 The first TikTok war: how are influencers in Russia and Ukraine responding?

👉 Putin’s critics call for boycotts of Russian vodka

👉 Italian luxury goods exports to Russia amount to roughly €1.2 billion annually

👉 BT made mobile and landline calls, texts and data to and from Ukrain free

👉 MEO offers calls, texts and data and a free pack Ukrainian TV

👉 6 Ukrainian fashion brands to know and support

👉 Uefa will take the 2022 Champions League final away from St Petersburg

👉 Schalke 04 to remove the logo of Russian majority state-owned Gazprom from its shirts

👉 Nestlé, Coca-Cola HBC, Imperial Brands, Carlsberg to close Ukraine production facilities

👉 Factbox: Brands with exposure to Russia

👉 Google's ad tools continue to monetize sites run by or associated with the Kremlin

👉 Manchester United Airline Partner Aeroflot Banned in the UK Following New Sanctions Against Russia

👉 Nikita Mazepin, son of major Uralkali shareholder Dmitry, will drive as planned for Haas on Friday but in all-white car with Russian branding removed

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❌ Prioritizing comfort much?

❌ Crociaga: Is ‘bad taste’ welly a fashion’s must-have?

❌ Crocs X Justin Bieber with drew sold out.

❌ As did Post Malone X Crocs

❌ As did a loooooooot of other brand collabs

👢 Back in 2017 Balenciaga premiered platform Crocs on a Paris runway

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🛄 La Tomatina started in 1945 in Buñol, Spain, and receives annually more than 30,000 tourists that throw each other more than 150 tons of tomatoes. It is now a Festival of Interest to International Tourists.

Apart from its success, some questions have been raised about La Tomatina being a waste of food. However, most of the tomatoes used during the event are rotten.

And, while you order your fries, remember: Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad!

Check out more about tourism and travels:

• 🌎 The quest for net-zero carbon emission,

• 🚅 Sustainability of overnight travel.

• 🚀 Space Tourism taking off.

• 🚐 Travelling the pandemic with a RV.

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According to Microsoft's Vasu Jakkal, “thirty per cent of people said they just have stopped using an account or service they were trying to log into rather than deal with a password reset.”

🔑 Now, you no longer need a password for a Microsoft account, as the software giant will let consumers sign in to Microsoft accounts with its Microsoft Authenticator app, Windows Hello, a security key, or an SMS / email verification code instead of a password. The company is officially retiring written passwords for personal accounts, including Outlook, OneDrive and Family Safety.

🍏 Apple is also taking a significant step towards passwordless authentication, with a new feature that allows users to log in using passkeys in iCloud Keychain with biometric security, such as Face ID and Touch ID.

👀 Google, on the other hand, keeps your account safe with Google Prompts without having to type in your password each time manually. Open your phone and tap Yes on the incoming notification to verify that it's you signing in!

What are your thoughts on identity as a service (IDaaS)? Wouldn't you love that the rhythm of your ♥️ could be your password?

🔙 Take a look back at the Clubhouse data leak of 1.3 million users, the Facebook data breach of more than 500 million Facebook accounts, or the Linkedin’s 700 million users concerned by a new stack of emails, phone numbers, and other sensitive data being sold on the dark web!

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World: meet Rozy

Brands that target Millennials and Gen Z constantly look for new faces to promote their products to a critical audience. Rozy is 22 years old and always will be.

Created in August 2020, the AI model has already secured over 1 billion won (over $850k) with several brands in South Korea and other APAC markets. She has followed the footsteps of Gaming influencer Seraphine, created by Riot Games.

Is this a long-term move or a fade?

According to Business Insider, the influencer marketing spend will be $15 billion by the end of 2021, and virtual influencers will get a piece of the pie. A growing amount, according to available data:

• There are over 5000 virtual YouTube influencers, and the estimate is for that number to triple by the end of 2021.

• Virtual Humans allows you to create your virtual influencer and get funded. KnoxFrost, for example, has over 700k followers.

• Instagram is filled with virtual influencers promoting brands, and the estimate is that there are over twenty thousand virtual influencers with more than 5000 followers. Here is M△Y△ promoting Puma gear:

• Calvin Klein’s 2019 campaign with Bella Hadid and Lil Miquela was controversial for many but the start of a trend for others. Here’s the famous making-out ad:

• Just a year ago, imma and IKEA also struck a partnership.

No tantrums and 24 hours workhorses

Virtual influencers do not have privacy issues, keep their appearance, and can work non-stop. So why not invest in them? That is precisely what Baek Seung-yeop, CEO of Sidus Studio X, said in a recent interview in Korea :

When Rozie is selected as the advertising model for a campaign, there is no fear that the advertisement will be interrupted due to an unsavory privacy scandal. In addition, since all scenes can be produced with CGI, there is no restriction of time and space, and unlike real people, it does not get sick or old, so the active period is long.

So, what are you going to use on your next campaign? Virtual or real influencer?

By the way, did you know Robots could become the new Michaelangelo?

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It happened to all of us in marketing at least once. 🙋

That sweaty gorilla hand before sending out an email campaign is something no one in marketing can ever forget. It made Mailchimp a household name from the bakery next door to the Fortune 500.

Why is Intuit buying Mailchimp? Circular Economy.

Intuit is the leader of financial services for small and medium businesses. With products such as TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mint, and Credit Karma, Intuit already holds a powerful position in the financial management of small businesses across different markets. Mailchimp completes the circle. The joint PR statement is very clear about it:
Together, Intuit and Mailchimp will work to deliver on the vision of an innovative, end-to-end customer growth platform for small and mid-market businesses, allowing them to get their business online, market their business, manage customer relationships, benefit from insights and analytics, get paid, access capital, pay employees, optimize cash flow, be organized and stay compliant, with experts at their fingertips. Delivering on the promise to be the single source of truth, small and mid-market businesses will have the power to combine their customer data from Mailchimp and QuickBooks’ purchase data to get the actionable insights they need to grow and run their businesses with confidence.

More importantly, the numbers speak for themselves. Mailchimp brings to Intuit:

• Global customer reach with 13 million total users globally, 2.4 million monthly active users, and 800,000 paid customers, with 50 percent of customers outside of the U.S.

• Data and technology in the form of 70 billion contacts and 250+ rich partner integrations.

• AI-powered automation at scale fuels 2.2 million daily AI-driven predictions.

In return, Intuit allows Mailchimp to connect audience and buyers bringing in over 7 million customers of QuickBooks.

The combo power of customer data — via Mailchimp — with the purchasing data — via QuickBooks — is immense, and it will tackle one of the biggest problems for small businesses: growth.

Why does it matter?

Mailchimp is a bootstrapped company without any VC capital investment that chose to do profit-sharing instead of creating equity plans for their employees. It did not need to be acquired to stand in its own two feet. With Intuit buying it for $12 billion, it makes history as the biggest ever bootstrapped deal. For comparison, Microsoft bought Minecraft’s Mojang for $2.5 billion — this is almost 10x that amount.

At Newspitality, we got an “exclusive” of how the Mailchimp team asked Intuit to close the deal:

Thankfully, we cannot deepfake acquisitions yet, but there’s some creepy tech around for everything else.

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Four AI-generated faces allow you to test the service: turn anyone into a porn star by using deepfake technology to swap the person’s face into an adult video.

The site will open up a library of porn videos. A user can then select any video to generate a preview of the face-swapped result within seconds—and pay to download the full version.

As the technology has advanced, numerous easy-to-use no-codetools have also emerged. Many of these services have since been forced offline, but the code still exists in open-source repositories and has continued to resurface in new forms.

Nonconsensual deepfake porn can have devastating economic and career impacts.

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Newspitality

Ajax website crashes with Bob Marley inspiring third kit

The love story between Ajax fans and the Jamaican singer, who believed “Football is Freedom!” started in 2008. After a friendly match against Cardiff, the Dutch fans were asked to remain in the stands and the stadium DJ played 'Three Little Birds'. They instantly embraced the song as their own and…

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5 years ago · 1 like · Tiago Baldaia

💳 Visa buys NFT as bitcoin tops $50,000, hitting a more than 3-month high

Newspitality

Crypto: Visa buys a CryptoPunk, Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey is mining bitcoin

Visa bought a CryptoPunk NFT for $150,000 in ether, believing NFTs mark a new chapter for digital commerce…

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5 years ago · 1 like · Patricia Soares da Costa

🎮 12 Minutes: is it really like playing a video game directed by Stanley Kubric?

Newspitality

12 Minutes: launching the most talked about time loop interactive game thriller

Bored on a hot summer day? Do try to help this man stuck in a time loop with a mystery that you slowly need to unravel by making different choices in each loop. “Twelve Minutes” is set to be released on August 19th, available for PC via Steam and the Windows Store, and on Microsoft Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One…

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5 years ago · 1 like · Patricia Soares da Costa

🏠 Brands have become part of the emergency evacuation efforts

Newspitality

Brands help Afghan refugees: Airbnb offers free accommodation, plus airlines, retailers, telcos

Hosts who shelter Afghan refugees will be reimbursed by Airbnb, aiming to help house up to 20,000. Airbnb’s charitable arm will work with hosts willing to offer spaces, but has yet to say where or for how long…

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5 years ago · 1 like · Patricia Soares da Costa

🇵🇹 The latest and most creative political campaigns

Newspitality

*updated* Political marketing: locals bet on awareness and you don't want to miss it

Portugal is going to elections on September 26th for 308 municipalities and 3.092 civil parishes, which means remembering the rich geographic naming all around the country, and thousands of local candidates, some of them with memorable campaigns: United or not so much…

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5 years ago · 2 likes · Tiago Baldaia and Patricia Soares da Costa

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• U.S. wireless carrier Verizon waives charges for calls to Afghanistan.

• Discount retailer Walmart plans, through its foundation, to donate $1 million to three nonprofits supporting Afghan refugees entering the US.

• Several travel brands have become part of the emergency evacuation efforts.

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The love story between Ajax fans and the Jamaican singer, who believed “Football is Freedom!” started in 2008. After a friendly match against Cardiff, the Dutch fans were asked to remain in the stands and the stadium DJ played 'Three Little Birds'. They instantly embraced the song as their own and have been singing it at every game since then.

Designed by Adidas, the new black kit features red, yellow and green details and three little birds stitched on the back. Unfortunately, when it was released, the Dutch club’s website crashed and the kit was sold out. If you don’t have it yet, “don't worry about a thing, ‘cause every little thing gonna be all right!”

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Visa bought a CryptoPunk NFT for $150,000 in ether, believing NFTs mark a new chapter for digital commerce.

CryptoPunk 7610 is one of 3840Female punks. A collection of nine rare CryptoPunks that were among the first 1,000 minted fetched almost $17 million in an auction at Christie's in May this year.

CryptoPunks are an assortment of 24x24 pixelated avatars, each considered to be rare NFT collectibles with own unique features and accessories. There are a total of 10,000 in existence and no two are exactly alike.

The cryptocurrency market is starting the week off strong as Bitcoin tops $50,000, hitting a more than 3-month high.

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, is inspired by bitcoin as ‘It reminds me of the early internet’ and is mining bitcoin with @compass_mining.

Square, his digital payments company, put “skin in the game” with $170 million more in bitcoin buy earlier this year.

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Do try to help this man stuck in a time loop with a mystery that you slowly need to unravel by making different choices in each loop.

“Twelve Minutes” is set to be released on August 19th, available for PC via Steam and the Windows Store, and on Microsoft Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One.

It seems to be an incredible achievement in puzzle design, more than just an intoxicating story.

Besides a star-studded cast including James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe, it gets curious reviews:

• it might just be the closest we'll ever get to playing a video game directed by Stanley Kubrick.

• being stuck in a time loop where you do the same thing over and over is as frustrating as it sounds.

• a diabolical dive into the human psyche.

And we're drawn to time loop stories in any medium

• As far as 1892 with "Christmas Every Day" by William Dean Howells, adapted for film in 1996

• Groundhog Day itself

• and Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch: a choose-your-own-adventure edition, with many decisions to make and many possible paths for the story to take.

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United or not so much

Same same but different

Build the future together… in a cemetery

or in other strange sounding places

As long as you don’t forget the keys to the house

Some will part ways

Some will go the extra mile 🕷

Reason to believe: being “Lara’s husband”

Triplets

Or unique graphic design skills

Some are ready for everything, mission impossible style

Some are willing to turn it around

And flaunt it

And flaunt it proudly

Obama style much?

Does size matter?

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Newspitality

💸 FC Barcelona loses €137 million in brand value: what a Mess(i)!

Reuters 💰 Brand Finance estimates that Lionel Messi’s departure could decrease FC Barcelona’s brand value by 11%: the club could see a €137m decline to its 2021 brand valuation of €1,266m. The brand value takes into account the proportion of revenues that comes directly from the brand. In Barcelona, Messi attracted more fans, better players, managers, co…

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5 years ago · Tiago Baldaia

Newspitality

TikTok overtakes Facebook as world's most downloaded app

It took the top spot from Facebook Messenger, with increased popularity during lockdown, particularly among younger people. The Chinese video-sharing platform is the only app not owned by Facebook to make the global top five of downloads. Data protection becoming more important as consumers demand privacy…

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5 years ago · 1 like · Patricia Soares da Costa

Newspitality

Victoria’s Secret, goes public at NYSE in late attempts to rebrand to "what women want"

Victoria’s Secret ditched Angels for powerful activists: “When the world was changing, we were too slow to respond,” said the company’s new CEO, Martin Waters. The lingerie market, set to reach $250 billion globally, has moved on from the male gaze to comfort, inclusivity and sexiness that embraces all body shapes and sizes…

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5 years ago · 1 like · Patricia Soares da Costa

Newspitality

🕺🏻Foo Fighters ambush their haters

🎸 10 years before For the last ten years, Foo Fighters have had to face Westboro Baptist Church’s protesters, who’ve picketed his band’s shows when they perform in Kansas. So in the past years, Foo Fighters organized counter-protest performances. The band’s tour returned to Kansas, reigniting their longstanding feud with the Westboro members, which routi…

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5 years ago · 1 like · Tiago Baldaia

And not so fresh but always worth remembering

Newspitality

Can robots replace Michelangelo? It’s new tech's turn to create and sculpt.

Is human touch necessary to produce art? In Carrara, a town famous for its white marble, new tech is transforming the traditional handmade marble-sculpting techniques. A team of robots is accepting commissions, carving with pinpoint precision, as ABB2, a 13-foot, zinc-alloy robotic arm, extends its spinning wrist and diamond-coated finger toward a gleami…

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5 years ago · 1 like · Patricia Soares da Costa

Newspitality

*updated* All the marketing moves for the Tokyo Olympics: brands carrying the torch

If the 11,000 competitors from more than 200 countries entice the TV audiences with stellar performances, empty stadiums may be forgiven and forgotten. However, recovering this brand equity may take decades If things don’t turn out at their best, the International Olympic Committee may be remembered for putting money first, and athletes and safety second…

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5 years ago · 2 likes · Patricia Soares da Costa, Tiago Baldaia, and Nuno Rocha

Newspitality

🚀 Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing brands can't do

Elena Scotti, Getty Images, PixelSquid Ground Control. Let’s start down here on Earth. 🛒 77% of Americans want consumer brands to be responsible for the recycling process. In a recent poll by AdWeek, 77% of consumers agreed that CPG brands should be responsible for the recycling process of the products they manufacture…

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5 years ago · 2 likes · Tiago Baldaia, Patricia Soares da Costa, Nuno Rocha, and José Brízida

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Newspitality® is curated by Patricia, Nuno, and Tiago

Get more curated news on branding, marketing, and communication.

And share this mess!

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💰 Brand Finance estimates that Lionel Messi’s departure could decrease FC Barcelona’s brand value by 11%: the club could see a €137m decline to its 2021 brand valuation of €1,266m.

The brand value takes into account the proportion of revenues that comes directly from the brand. In Barcelona, Messi attracted more fans, better players, managers, commercial deals, and win trophies. Without its superstar, Barcelona could expect lower future sponsorship income (-€77m), merchandise sales (-€43m), and matchday revenue (-€17m).

🚀 On the opposite side is Paris Saint-Germain, which wins new powerful revenue streams such as merchandise, ticketing, and partnerships, without have to pay a transfer fee. This aligns perfectly with PSG’s strategy of having megastars whose global status take take the club to another level, like Real Madrid’s “galacticos”.

⌛ A hint of what is yet to come is Lionel Messi's PSG shirt being sold out online only 30 minutes after his signing! Check here why Messi is wearing number 30 instead of 10 at PSG.

🥤 And for you, who’s the real 🐐? If it’s Cristiano Ronaldo, take a look back at the moment where the Portuguese captain removed two bottles of Coca-Cola in a EURO 2020 press conference!

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The Chinese video-sharing platform is the only app not owned by Facebook to make the global top five of downloads. Data protection becoming more important as consumers demand privacy

Discord, a voice calling app popular among gamers for chatting when online, moved up to seventh place and has benefited from people's need to isolate during the pandemic. 

TikTok is trialling a new vanishing clips feature similar to functions on Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram. TikTok Stories will allow users to see content posted by accounts they follow for 24 hours before they are deleted.

It came after WhatsApp rolled out a feature for users to post photos or videos that vanish after they are seen.

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More news on branding & marketing

The lingerie market, set to reach $250 billion globally, has moved on from the male gaze to comfort, inclusivity and sexiness that embraces all body shapes and sizes.

But after the brand began trading on the New York Stock Exchange this week, under the stock ticker “VSCO”, it’s setting off down the road to reinvention.

Once known for its overtly sexual Angels, now Victoria’s Secret & Co. hired plus-size and transgender models, added more comfortable styles, including athleisure, reintroduced swimwear into the mix, canceled its high-profile fashion show and is now in the process of updating its store fleet.

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Newspitality

Victoria’s Secret ditches Angels for powerful activists

“When the world was changing, we were too slow to respond,” said the company’s new CEO, Martin Waters. From lacy, strappy underwear often designed more for allure than practicality, to the new VS Collective with a more inclusive definition of what sexy is…

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5 years ago · 4 likes · Patricia Soares da Costa

Newspitality

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue's 1st transgender cover model: black filipino Leyna Bloom

The 27-year-old model and actress makes history as Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue's first transgender cover model. Breaking barriers in the fashion industry, she became one of the first openly transgender models during New York Fashion Week in September 2017 and was the first transgender woman of color to appear in Vogue India in October 2017…

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5 years ago · 2 likes · Patricia Soares da Costa

For the last ten years, Foo Fighters have had to face Westboro Baptist Church’s protesters, who’ve picketed his band’s shows when they perform in Kansas. So in the past years, Foo Fighters organized counter-protest performances.

The band’s tour returned to Kansas, reigniting their longstanding feud with the Westboro members, which routinely descend on the parking lot outside Foo Fighters shows with their hate-filled signs. The right-wing group is known by its hate speech against atheists, Jews, Muslims, members of the LGBT community and other citizen groups.

Dave Grohl and his bandmates responded with music and dressing up as their disco alter egos, 'The Dee Gees'. Then drove along in front of the protesters performing a lengthy rendition of “You Should Be Dancing!”

“Ladies and gentlemen, I got something to say. Because you know what? I love you! I do. The way I look at it, I love everybody. That’s what you’re supposed to do. I deliver all of my love, and you shouldn’t be hating. You should be dancing!”

🍼 2 years old

And you don’t have to be a star to rock! This year’s edition of Obscene Extreme, a festival held in the Czech Republic dedicated to heavy metal, was marked by a stage invasion by a baby! However, the protective headphones left the child calmly admiring the headbanging that was taking place all over.

💀 27 Club

Before you go, take a look back to the 27 Club, one of the most elusive and remarkably tragic coincidences in rock & roll history.

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You may share, you may subscribe or you may do both. But keep on rockin’ in the free world!

In Carrara, a town famous for its white marble, new tech is transforming the traditional handmade marble-sculpting techniques.

A team of robots is accepting commissions, carving with pinpoint precision, as ABB2, a 13-foot, zinc-alloy robotic arm, extends its spinning wrist and diamond-coated finger toward a gleaming piece of white marble.

Manual labor is difficult, hard work. It took 5 years for the great artist Canova to complete his neo-classical masterpiece, ‘Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss.’ It took only 270 hours of a robot to create a reproduction of it.

It, of course, could not have conceived it.

So can robots make art or not?

Ai-Da’s just became the first robot artist to stage a solo exhibition, and she’s the latest AI innovation to blur the boundary between machine and artist.

In the mid-20th century, “cybernetic artists” began to work with automatons. The polishartist Edward Ihnatowicz created The Senster, an electromechanical sculpture that could move and respond to people around it in a surprisingly lifelike manner.

New tech versus heritage

The creation of automata, mechanical devices driven by cogs, goes back centuries. These “robots” found their greatest expression in the incredible feats of mechanised Karakuri puppets in Japan and the clockwork automata of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.

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