More than 5,600 artists signed an open letter protesting the auction, saying that the works used AI models that are trained on copyrighted work.

Yesterday, Christie’s closed out Augmented Intelligence, its highly-contested auction dedicated to artificial intelligence-generated art. The first of its kind, the sale brought in around $729,000 USD, surpassing its initial estimate by over 20%.

Thousands of artists protested Christie's first auction dedicated to AI art. Yet the auction went on — and reportedly exceeded expectations.

Christie's first auction of art made by artificial intelligence (AI) ended Wednesday with mixed results, providing scant clues as to the future of the new and controversial medium.

The auction proceeded despite fierce opposition from thousands of artists, who accused AI models of exploiting human creativity without consent.