The first piece of AI-generated art to come to auction

First at Christies public auction? Sure. can Buy that.

First sold for more than the tokenistic price? I can't prove it, but I am very unsure this is strictly true. its the first in the 21st century modern experience, but I would suspect there are works by earlier 1970s onwards AI which have traded for real cash. This is the most visible? sure. Doesn't mean works haven't traded before now. I'm sure somebody like Paul Allan who bankrolled much of the babbage build for the SF computer history museum would have early works.

People were playing with this stuff from the sixties onwards. People have been exploring machine mediated art for years.