Art in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
People spend more and more time online, a trend that is increasing across industrialized societies around the world. In fact, Canadians spend an average of five hours online daily.
Contemporary society relies on ever-increasing amounts of data. These pervasive data flows are parsed, sculpted and acted upon by neural networks and artificial intelligence (AI). But as digital networks envelop most aspects of our everyday lives, algorithmic illiteracy poses growing risks, both socially and politically. Despite the growing roles of these technologies in our lives, they are invisible and not understood clearly by the public.
Dr. Amber Frid-Jimenez, Canada Research Chair in Art and Design Technology, is engaging with AI and neural networks to create visual and visceral artworks that reveal the hidden algorithms that define contemporary life. She and her research team are focusing on illuminating the cultural implications of contemporary AI technologies, especially as they relate to gender and diversity bias. They are also addressing gender and diversity inequities by training adversarial neural networks on alternative data sets that represent women, then using these to create multimedia installations that highlight inequalities.
Frid-Jimenez’s projects make use of affect and emotion to create a space for public discussion of these pervasive technologies. Ultimately, her work will contribute to public debate about an urgent and underexplored topic that is critical to equity, diversity and inclusion.