The AI speaker for AI policy

Interactive installation and performative intervention conducted during the Internet Governance Forum 2019, using the open-source GPT-2  model to generate synthetic text based on the input of policy papers and transcripts from previous sessions at the IGF. 

The name is a transcription from the word for coffee maker (“Kuvalo”). Q, besides being a science fiction reference is also a reference to “Q, the first genderless voice”,created with the idea to break down the gender binary and the stereotyping that binary brings.

IQ’whalo started as an invitation to open and reexamine the face value of negotiating artificial intelligence in light of increasing complexity of technology, coupled with automation. It was an experiment in vivo, to observe what would happen if a neural network was to generate a speech on regulating AI based on previous IGF discussions, and include that speech to play out in the setting of AI policy experts.

The content it produced resembled a poetic or dadaist stream of consciousness, including some segments of completely coherent text, out of which its speech was extracted. It also produced some repetitive logical fragments that had no meaningful connection to the rest of its text. The results showed that a basic neural network can generate some meaningful sentences and ideas and effectively show patterns not immediately visible to the human eye. They also showed that a continuous stream of thought presents a challenge for this type of system. besides all, it is an inquiry into the tension between the expectations of supernatural forces and of mundane appliances; between feeding one’s desire versus the reality of feeding data into the neural networks of the everyday.

Created wih Vladimir Veljasevic and Milos Rancic for DIploFoundation's AI lab.