AI: MORE THAN HUMAN
Interact with digital thinking
Open until 26 August Venue Barbican, london
Before our robot masters rise up and enslave us all, we may as well have a little fun with them, right? And maybe learn something at the same time. After all, as this fascinating exhibition at London’s Barbican Centre repeatedly reminds us through the use of a stunning range of interactive installations, AI is currently learning an awful lot from us, so why shouldn’t it return the favour?
There’s a dizzying amount of content packed into a relatively small area here, much of which can be prodded, poked and played with to your heart’s – or, indeed, organic brain’s – content. Throw a ball for a robot dog. Help AIs compose poetry and music. Enter a virtual world in a pleasure-fixated AI-run future. Become mesmerised by a kaleidoscope of weird and wonderful AIcreated images.
It’s all great fun and totally absorbing, but the exhibition also effortlessly opens your mind to the possibilities of AI. Nods to Blade Runner, Alan Turing and Deep Blue’s chess match against Garry Kasparov help provide a historical context, while other exhibits – including a wall of tulip photographs – help you understand how AI “thinks” and how it may develop in the future.
While some of the more esoteric displays struggle to get their concepts across in the crowdpleasing environment (we’re still not clear what Vespers are, but they look cool), it’s an exhibition that cannot fail to get you thinking. All we need to worry about now is the AIs realising they’re being used as performing chimps… Dave Golder
Accompanying the exhibition there’s a fascinating and packed website at g.co/ aibarbican, with lots of exclusive content.