When Hiromi Ozaki creates six AI-generated “Tech Bros” to discuss each other about the future of humanity, she didn't know how quickly and how closely and intimate reality mimics art.
“It's not about voting anymore, it's about who controls the algorithm,” argues one of the avatars, a blond man with a square chin.
“It really makes me wonder,” another fictional persona assumes that their personality has been trained in the philosophy and ideas of billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. “Where is the free?
The characters appearing on the big screen panel in the video installation are based on Ozaki's face and voice, but have been reimagined as a white man. They were designed to embody the “styloid technological peers,” according to a video interview, Sputniko! said the Japanese-British artist known as.
The outcome is creepy, with Avatar discussing topics ranging from the working class future to the fate of democracy, and chilly indifference.
The project debuted at Ozaki's solo show held in Tokyo last year, days before the US presidential election. The creation of the Musk-led Government Efficiency Bureau (DOGE). This month it will be exhibited at ARS Electronic Cafe Stability in Austria, followed by a three-month exhibition at the art gallery at Brooklyn College, New York.
The work reflects the increasing vigilance of the artist's technology, particularly AI, but I feel it is even more relevant in light of current events.
According to her, tech elites are increasingly responsible for the story.
“They have so much power and money, and they're really talking about humanity as they have full control.”
Ozaki has always been less pessimistic about technology, and was once drawn into the field as “something that can change our society and structure.” Ozaki, the daughter of two mathematics professors, studied mathematics and computer science at Imperial College in London before completing her Masters in Design. She is also an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Studies, where she founded a group examining the impact of emerging technologies.
Technology has always been heavily featured in immersive art in her immersive art, from the wearable device “menstrual machine” (2010), which simulates abdominal pain and releases blood, to the sculptural clothing that mimics the experience of menstruation (2017), to exploring spherical artists with spherical artists with lab ground flesh artists.
The artists used the creation of mechanical, robotics and digital worlds to explore the growth potential of technology to communicate complex ideas. It was also crucial to promote her work, attracting the attention of major institutions, from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Her perspective has changed since the pandemic. She once thought it was essential for a more equitable and progressive future, but she now sees the development of cutting-edge technologies like AI deepening social and economic inequality, spreading misinformation, and negatively changing the way people think and interact.
She explored this feeling in her recent solo exhibition. “Can you believe in a lucky tomorrow?” This featured two other thought-inspired video installations, in addition to the aforementioned “Tech Bro Debates Humanity.”
The show's nominal work is an AI simulation video showing an optical phenomenon known as “saiun”.” – When the sun shines It creates a stream of rainbow light through rainbow clouds. This is a symbol of good fortune in some Asian cultures. In the real world, it is a rare sight. However, with AI, you can always simulate the phenomenon.
Also, in “Drone Looking for a Four-Leaf Clover,” the drone scans a field of green clover and instantly identifies several four-leaf versions hidden in the grass. The elusive four-leaf clover has long been associated with the fortune and happiness of Celtic culture, as rare mutations sometimes produce a fourth.
Both works take into account the true cost of AI-driven efficiency. In the former, how much joy does rarity, coincidence and surprise add to it? In the latter, did you find joy in having a clover, or the quest itself?
Her work evokes cliché quotes that often stem from the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Life is a journey, not a destination.” In the age of AI, how many journeys are we still taking?
Ozaki doesn't just feel the high-tech practices. Digital burnout is on the rise, especially among Gen Z and Millennials, and they are increasingly hoping to disconnect from digital devices.
Technology is often welcomed as a way to reduce workload, but Ozaki cites economist John Maynard Keynes. He speculated in 1930 that he needed to advance to the point where he would only work 15 hours within a century.
In most countries, working hours have steadily declined throughout the 20th century, but since the 1990s, economists say this trend has stagnated, or in the case of the US, “extreme” working hours have increased in many economically developed countries. Digitalising work and widespread internet connections (enable remote working and 24/7 connections to workphones and email) are both contributing factors. Ozaki sees the rejection of “hustle culture” by many young people as an appreciation of a “unequal system” that can't be won.
“There have been so many technological advances, but we haven't worked 15 hours,” she said.
Despite growing concerns about the ways technology impacts our lives, Ozaki uses it to tackle social inequality outside of her work as an artist.
In 2019, she attempted to address the lack of women's healthcare services in Japan, and co-founded Cradle, a startup that works with dozens of companies, including Hitachi and Honda, providing employees with better resources for happiness.
Employee services launched in 2022 include e-seminar on a variety of health topics, virtual health consultations and employer-subsidized coupons at partner clinics. Initially for women, the online platform also caters to men and trans people. For employers, cradles help identify healthcare coverage gaps and advise on how to improve health and DEI policies, among other services.
For Ozaki, her company hopes to float on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in the coming years, but is “medium” of videos, music, canvas and more to express her values and explore ideas.
Ozaki knows the tacit paradox of being an anti-capitalist “artist activist” who owns a business and works with large corporations. “I've started to hate capitalism,” she explained.
