Imagine a computer that could own you in a political debate, pick the perfect outfit from your wardrobe, or pen a newsletter article you’d swear was your own writing. The emergence of artificial intelligence promises to match, even trump, human cognition – a revolution as profound as “electricity or fire”, according to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. But with promise comes peril: what if AI can’t match the complexity of our brilliantly-evolved, creative brains? The flip side to the AI dream is on full show at Chom5ky vs Chomsky, an immersive installation running at Kindl this November (04–20.11.2022). Developed by MIT lecturer and sociologist Sandra Rodriguez, this augmented reality experience lets you step into a virtual world of machine learning and algorithms and discover the potential – and limits – of AI.
With the aid of a VR headset, you spend 40 minutes exploring what makes our minds so sophisticated, and if and how computers can replicate them. Your guide? A machine version of none other than Noam Chomsky, the linguist and cognitive scientist who has spent his 60-year career studying the brain processes AI seeks to copy. While the installation does celebrate the potential of the technology, Chomsky himself is on the skeptical end of the AI debate. Looks like newsletter articles won’t be writing themselves just yet…
Text: Benji Haughton / Credit: Schnelle Bunte Bilder / NFB
Chom5ky vs Chomsky takes place 04–20.11.2022 at Kindl, Am Sudhaus 3, 12053 Berlin–Neukölln; map
See online for tickets and more info.
Chom5ky vs Chomsky was created by Sandra Rodriguez. It was co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada and Berlin studio Schnelle Bunte Bilder, with support from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. Chom5ky vs Chomsky is part of Berlin Science Week 2022.
