Created by: Peter Thiedeke From: Currumbin Valley, QLD, Australia

Communing with robots asks: what will human agency mean when centralised artificial intelligence mediates our experience of public and private life? Will anonymity, privacy and trust be possible in a world where AI ‘knows’ you better than you know yourself?

In making this video the artist asked a robot the same question three times: can I trust you? Each time the robot responded differently.

The robot, a GPT-2 algorithm, is an open-source artificial intelligence that scrapes and remixes data from a myriad of web sources to generate responses. The kinetic text included is robotic fiction with a degree of coherence, however, without any fixed structure the AI produces an inconsistent and unpredictable—albeit fascinating—stream of consciousness. The diverse and often bizarre references to fictional characters and situations are strangely beautiful. With childlike innocence, poetry emerges from GPT-2’s non-human choice of words.

About the Creator

Peter Thiedeke is an image-maker working in visual arts and speculative design. Peter has exhibited and published worldwide and has received international recognition and awards for his creations. Peter lectures at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, where he is working on a PhD project.

For more information: peterthiedeke.com