Alan Turing, the mathematical enigma code breaking genius, has been announced as the new face of the 50 pound note. This is a monumental moment for the great man who, even after achieving so much and saving millions of lives through his breakthroughs died an ignominious death… just because of his sexual preference. I have been reading up on the great man and, following my trip to the AI: More Than Human Exhibition at the Barbican, learned a little more about the Turing Test. Simply put, it asserts that if an artificial intelligence can persuade 30% of the people it was interacting with that it was a human, through the responses it gave, then the artificial intelligence passes the test. Now for some people this all sounds scary and conjures up images of the Terminator, Skynet, Ed-209 and many other dystopian images. The reason that we find the concept of robot developing AI are both practical (they could start to kill us) to the more philosophical, as we have the concept of the muse, spirit or soul in the West, which came from Greece. However, in Japan the Shinto belief that ‘kami’ or spirits exist everything in the world; rocks, plants, furniture, and even computers means they are more accepting of AI.

AI puts the fear of gosh into most of us.

This is all heady stuff, but for a lighter side check out Bot Or Not, a website that presents different poems and asks you to decide whether it was created by a human or an AI. I did the Digital Writers’ Test, which presents 10 poems and asks you to guess if it is a bot or not. I was shocked when I only correctly guessed 4 out of 10!it can be challenging. Check it out and post your score.

I consider myself quite quick off the mark but apparently…. I’m not!

LINK: AI: More Than Human Exhibition at the Barbican

LINK: Bot or Not Test

LINK: Robot Exhibition at the Science Museum, London

The Barbican is currently running a centre wide exhibition looking at Artificial Intelligence (AI). The AI: More Than Human exhibition looks at the complex relationship between humans and machines, asking us what it really means to be human. To answer this question the exhibition brings together people from a variety of disciplines including scientists, artists, philosophers and researchers and offers an often interactive way to engage with this most heady of topics.

AI: More Than Human Exhibition @Barbican

As I was early, I explored the various interactive installations that were housed around the hall before entering the exhibition proper.
Along the long Silk Street corridor, there were two large screens with what looks like atoms connected. There was a spot on the floor with footprints and when you stood on it and moved your limbs the atomic structure changed. It reminded me of an Xbox Kinect experience, so not too flashy but there were several young children who were engaged and were fascinated that they were an active agent for what occurred on the screens. The vision of Barbican in 2065 through a three screened walking simulator was interesting, as it showed the brightly lit cityscape strewn with wind turbines, but I felt like it missed a trick by not using a VR headset. The sense of immersion would have been greater with this medium utilised.
Down in the Pit, was the highlight of the interactive exhibitions, teamLab’s ‘What a Loving and Beautiful World’. It contained projectors which interacted with people's shadows and movements to create an output, be it trees growing, pink cherry blossom drifting by slowly or birds flying. It was wonderful and quite meditative and an early highlight.

Thoroughly impressed, I then entered the ticketed part of exhibition and saw that it was split into 4 sections:
The dream of AI,
Mind machines,
Data worlds, and
Endless evolution.

In the first section, The Dream of AI, I was greeted with a provenance that stated that there were many tales of non-living things coming to life through magic, science, religion or Illusion.
Comic books, religious texts, alchemical paraphanalia, models and figures were displayed to show how, throughout history, this has been a large area of interest for humans, whether to understand what life is, play God or to extend life and cheat death.
A sepia toned video installation titled AE/MAETH by Hurlig and Weitz was a stunning look at how much AI, cyborgs, golems and the like have become a part of pop culture, transcending its Judaic origins from Rabbi Loew's 16th century golem story.
The Japanese belief of Shinto and animism is explored as inanimate objects are said to have kami, a life force, which means that Japanese culture is more accepting of the concept of AI, thus the prevalence of characters such as Astrobot and Doaromon in their pop culture.
This section had a few film clips from Frankstein, Blade Runner, Der Golem, Ex Machina and much more to show how the fear of AI has been a long running human preoccupation.

The next section, Mind Machines explained how AI developed through history and had much on show, from Babbage's Analytic Engine, the first 'computer' which was powered by steam to Turing's The Bombe Enigma code breaking machine used in the film, 'The Imitation Game.' The video wall with a time line of breakthroughs and achievements was great to follow but with such a large crowd it was difficult to read everything and take it in.

In Data Worlds, the ability of AI to change society was examined. As I entered there was a racing video game and next to that a screen where your reactions were monitored and the emotion you were sensed to be feeling shown on screen. There were a variety of different neural networks on show, which you could interactive with. Issues such as racial bias and privacy were explored. The Future of Life letter, which argued against the use of AI controlled weapon systems was on show, undersigned by Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak amongst many others, highlighted the very real danger that AI could pose if not properly controlled.

The final part, Endless Evolution, looked at the future of the human race. It showcased a robot interacting with people as they passed a few video installations of where AI should be going and the future of artificial life.

As a whole, the exhibition is interesting and engaging but it is all a bit overwhelming. There is so much to see and hear that you need a good couple of hours to appreciated it fully. Some of the videos looked interesting but the ambient noise level made it difficult to hear anything clearly. So, is it worth the money? Well, I enjoyed it but did find it not as well organised or curated as the Robot Exhibition from a couple of years ago at the Science Museum. It's worth a look if this is a field of interest but for the casual onlooker I don't think it will appeal.