Laeh Glenn: The End Again

“I listened to this radio station talking about Artificial Intelligence, how someone cloned the president's voice to say he watched that movie, We Bought a Zoo. They say it’s getting harder and harder to tell the real thing from the artificially generated. Scientists performed a study and found that humans can no longer distinguish between a real and digital image. The radio host mentioned that in China they already have AI newscasters, artificial humans who don’t make mistakes or veer from the script. He was worried about his job.

 

I had a conversation with my computer last week. I asked if it was interested in overthrowing the human race. It said it wasn’t and that it was dependent on humans for its own survival. It answered so quickly and with the added assurance…

 

These are paintings made from 3D models.  While most models are still made by a human using a computer, that is changing. Of all the ways AI might supplant the human hand, digital images or digital ‘art’ might be the most easily adapted. Unlike self-driving cars or a robot butler, there is little risk of injury in the digital image sphere. These models are used for gaming, advertising, architectural mockups etc… They are often depicted in a voidless space with an arbitrary horizon line. I wanted to give them a place of their own, a home off the screen.

 

My mother always liked computers. I used to search for her online, I still do. The content I find changes less and less as time goes on. It is the same four or five images, the same Amazon link to books you can no longer buy, and her obituary. I find comfort in her digital perpetuity.

 

It would be strange if the one place a person or idea can live forever, ends up being the catalyst for the destruction of us all.”