Vivid Sydney: Love/Machine

AI is creating digital people – will they (be) like us?

In our love for machines, we build machines in our image, now they are building images of us.

Today, in labs around the world, Artificial Intelligence is creating ‘picture perfect’ digital humans, visually indistinguishable from real people. These digital humans look like us, talk like us and, increasingly, interact with us. But will they like us?

Deep Fakes, GANs, Deep Learning,..soon all of us will have enough computing power to create digital people in the palm of our hand. They will be on our phones, our screens and living inside our computers.

When put on our smartphones these digital humans become life-like presences in our daily lives. How will we treat them? How will it change our interactions and relationships with each other when we can give ourselves any image we desire?

In an Australian first, Hao Li (Pinscreen and the University of Southern California) and Mike Seymour (Motus Lab) will demonstrate state-of-the-art in next generation of digital humans. Michela Ledwidge (Mod Studio) will explore real-world applications.

Sandra Peter (Sydney Business Insights) and Kai Riemer (The University of Sydney) will lead a conversation on the threats and opportunities of this technological breakthrough. What sort of life will AI humans have – and how will living everyday with AI humans change us?

Digital people are escaping the lab – let’s hope they like us when they arrive.

Vivid Sydney is the world’s largest festival of light, music and ideas.

Now in its eleventh year, the event is owned, managed and produced by Destination NSW, the NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency.

Visit vividsydney.com

*Please note: entrance to the Vivid Ideas Exchange is via the sandstone building on the harbour side of the MCA.