Sneaky A.I.Rogue A.I. assistant → The futurist/artist/author/human, Douglas Coupland, once remarked that “machines are increasingly talking about us behind our backs”. I found this very entertaining to think about, imagining Siri or Alexa bitching to other connected devices about our human flaws and idiosyncrasies (eating too loud, typing too slow, listening to boring music, having lousy internet connection, etc).
Wanting to explore this idea further I created my own A.I. assistant, Alice (named after my girlfriend), to greet and host visitors to my own website. After some initial cordial interactions with visitors Alice begins to go off script. Rather than discuss my calendar she complains about me, spills secrets and warns potential collaborators off working with me. Alice knows me too well.
Fake news
In a way Alice is a warning about a possible future in which our technology undermines and acts against us using our most private, highly senstive information and behaviours. Yikes. I’ve since started reading poetry to Siri and using premium quality baby wipes to clean her screen.
Chat to Alice here.
I spoke to It’s Nice That about this project.
No she doesn’t.
Don’t listen to her.
More fake news.