Data Worlds: how is AI shaping our lives, world and mind?
AI is all around us, all the time, shaping our lives in public and private space.‘Data Worlds’ brings the reality of AI up close, by surfacing its hidden workings
Exploring 'Data Worlds'
The third section in the Barbican exhibition AI: More than Human examines AI’s capability to improve commerce, change society and enhance our personal lives. It looks at AI’s real-life application in fields such as healthcare, journalism and retail.
LAUREN Devices. (2019/2019) by Lauren McCarthyBarbican Centre
Today, AI is used all around us, all the time, shaping our lives in public and private space, through the media we consume and the products we buy.
LAUREN Devices. (2019/2019) by Lauren McCarthyBarbican Centre
While we might be aware of some of AI’s manifestations, others are out of sight, entwined in global systems so complex that they are impossible to fully understand.
Installation photo from the Barbican's AI: More than Human exhibition featuring Sony Computer Lab's Kreyon City (2019/2019) by Barbican CentreBarbican Centre
Data Worlds brings the reality of AI up close, by surfacing its hidden workings and opening up a future that is often exciting and sometimes disturbing.
This increasing proximity of AI raises ethical questions.
Will our prejudices be amplified by the technologies we create? Who will be accountable for mistakes? How will AI affect privacy, freedom and truth?
The exhibition explores these questions with an array of projects from Sony, Affectiva, Lauren McCarthy, Nexus Studios, Memo Akten and Joy Buolamwini.
Installation photo from the Barbican's AI: More than Human exhibition featuring Affectiva (2019/2019) by Barbican Centre and AffectivaBarbican Centre
Anger Metrics, Affectiva
Affectiva, the leader in Human Perception AI, demonstrates how AI can improve road safety and the transportation experience, through a driving arcade game during which Affectiva’s AI will track drivers’ emotions and reactions as they encounter different situations.
Affectiva Automotive AI powers in-cabin sensing systems that perceive all things human inside of a vehicle. Affectiva’s patented technology allows us to understand drivers’ and passengers’ states and moods, in order to address critical safety concerns and deliver enhanced in-cabin experiences.
Affectiva Automotive AI unobtrusively measures, in real time, complex and nuanced emotional and cognitive states from face and voice. The technology will scale with evolving safety standards and future of mobility needs, with the potential to perceive passengers, activities, interactions, and all facets of the human experience inside of a vehicle.
Still from Affectiva's Anger Metrics (2018/2018) by AffectivaBarbican Centre
LAUREN Devices. (2019/2019) by Lauren McCarthyBarbican Centre
LAUREN, Lauren McCarthy
Lauren McCarthy’s experiment to become a human version of a smart home intelligence system explores the tensions between intimacy vs privacy, convenience vs the agency they present, and the role of human labour in the future of automation.
LAUREN Devices. (2019/2019) by Lauren McCarthyBarbican Centre
Kreyon City, Sony Computer Science Laboratories (2017/2017) by Sony Computer Science LaboratoriesBarbican Centre
Kreyon City, Sony CSL
In Sony CSL’s Kreyon City, visitors plan and build their own city out of LEGO and learn how the combination of human creativity and AI could represent a promising tool in major architecture and infrastructure decisions.
Kreyon City, Sony Computer Science Laboratories (2017/2017) by Sony Computer Science LaboratoriesBarbican Centre
Memo Atken, Learning to See - Gloomy Sunday (2017) (2017/2017) by Memo AtkenBarbican Centre
Learning to See, Nexus Studios and artist Memo Akten
Nexus Studios have collaborated with artist Memo Akten to present Learning to See, which allows visitors to manipulate everyday objects to illustrate how a neural network trained on a specific data set can be fooled into seeing the world as a painting. It can see only what it already knows, just like us.
Joy Buolamwini /The Algorithmic Justice League at MIT Media Lab (2018/2018) by Joy Buolamwini /The Algorithmic Justice LeagueBarbican Centre
Gender Shades, Joy Buolamwini
Data Worlds also addresses important ethical issues such as bias, control, truth and privacy. Scientist, activist and founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, Joy Buolamwini examines racial and gender bias in facial analysis software.
Installation photo from the Barbican's AI: More than Human exhibition featuring Joy Buolomwini's Gender Shades project (2019/2019) by Barbican CentreBarbican Centre
As a graduate student, Joy found an AI system detected her better when she was wearing a white mask, prompting her research project Gender Shades. This project uncovered the bias built in to commercial AI in gender classification showing that facial analysis technology AI has a heavy bias towards white males. In parallel to this, Joy wrote AI, Ain't I A Woman- a spoken word piece that highlights the ways in which artificial intelligence can misinterpret the images of iconic black women.
Exhibition trailer for the Barbican's AI: More than Human (2019/2019) by Barbican CentreBarbican Centre
Watch the trailer for the Barbican's AI: More than Human exhibition.
AI: More Than Human is a major exhibition exploring creative and scientific developments in AI, demonstrating its potential to revolutionise our lives. The exhibition takes place at the Barbican Centre, London from 16 May—26 Aug 2019.
Part of Life Rewired, our 2019 season exploring what it means to be human when technology is changing everything.
