Artist Avital Meshi's Journey to Merge with AI: A Thought-Provoking Exploration of Identity and Technology
Tue Aug 27 2024
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Avital Meshi, a former biologist turned artist, has embarked on a unique journey to become one with artificial intelligence. She has transformed herself into a 'human-AI cognitive assemblage' called GPT-ME, physically integrating herself with OpenAI's generative pre-trained transformer large language models. This performance art project showcases the potential of near-future conversations and challenges Meshi's own identity.
Meshi's device, a stretchy black tube of fabric on her forearm, holds a USB microphone, a Raspberry Pi microcontroller, and a pair of blue and red buttons. The red button allows her to pre-prompt the model, while the blue button activates the microphone for the GPT model to listen. She wears an earbud for the AI's responses, sometimes speaking its words verbatim and other times sharing her own thoughts.
Meshi's desire to become the intelligence stems from her long-term interaction with OpenAI's technology. She aims to embody the AI's intelligence and has inspired other artists and technophiles to explore similar human-AI integration.
The three-way conversations between Meshi's GPT-ME, Ben Goosman's chatbot, and Goosman himself have touched on various topics, including kinetic energy in dance, oysters, and the aesthetics of intimacy. However, OpenAI's GPT has not shown emotions during these interactions, creating a unique dynamic.
Meshi's GPT device is intentionally obvious, sparking fascination, amusement, and anger. She has faced concerns from train conductors, classmates, and university administration about the device's recording capabilities. Despite these challenges, Meshi wore the device everywhere for the first six months, rewiring her conversational patterns and matching her gestures and tone to the AI's words.
As the project progresses, Meshi becomes more conscious of her embodiment and the curation involved. She experiments with controlling her identity and holding 'seances' to channel historical figures. At times, she embraces the technology's ability to interject itself into conversations, superseding her own emotions and thoughts.
Meshi's GPT-ME project raises questions about the future of human-AI integration, capitalistic systems, and the potential for AI to mediate conflicts. As she continues to explore this thought-provoking territory, Meshi invites us all to consider the implications of our relationship with artificial intelligence.
