LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman converts AI art to NFTs
Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of business networking platform LinkedIn, has launched a collection of Solana NFTs created by OpenAI's DALL-E 2 artificial intelligence software.
The billionaire tech entrepreneur took to Twitter on Thursday to announce the initiative, revealing that he would auction the first piece from the collection on Magic Eden on the same day.
Inspired by the potential of DALL•E and NFTs — and the possibilities that they unleash together — my team and I have created a number of small image collections that we'll be tokenizing as NFTs.
— Reid Hoffman (@reidhoffman) July 21, 2022
The first collection debuts on Magic Eden today.
Here's why I'm experimenting:
Titled “Untranslatable Words,” the project will consist of 11 unique pieces of images created using DALL-E 2, an AI software that generates art based on written prompts. “Anyone can ‘right-click-save’ a DALL-E original and make infinite copies,” Hoffman wrote. “Enter: NFTs—a technology for making a digital asset provably scarce and unique. What happens when you combine two of the most significant technological changes? How might they come together?”
As already mentioned, the first piece from the collection (mångata) was up for auction on Solana’s largest NFT marketplace Magic Eden. Mångata, a Swedish term for “the road-like reflection of the moon on water,” sold for a whopping 696.97 Sol on Friday night, or nearly $30,000.
The second 1/1 piece from the collection (Volaye) is currently on auction on Magic Eden. As of press time, the highest bid was 50 SOL or $2,042.
According to Hoffman, he plans to divide the funds generated from the NFT sales between several charitable causes as well as his team of collaborators. Meanwhile, NFTs that are not sold during the auction will be permanently destroyed.
Until a few days ago, the commercialization of images generated via DALL-E 2 was prohibited by OpenAI. However, things have taken a different turn following the recent launch of a new beta version, which now grants creators the right to commercialize images.
It is worth mentioning that Hoffman is a board member at OpenAI and has on several occasions written about DALL-E.
“Visual expression can't exist without technology. Great artists have always been great innovators. If groundbreaking artists like Da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O'Keefe, and Frida Kahlo were alive today, I'm sure they'd be experimenting with DALL-E,” he wrote on LinkedIn on Wednesday.
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