Catalog of the exhibition ARTIFICIAL INTIMACIES

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Drawing parallels between the subtle manipulation of online romance scammers and the growing presence of AI companion chatbots apps like Replika, the exhibition Artificial Intimacies examines the rise of recreational romance and the gamification of intimacy online, while reflecting on the evolving emotional dynamics between humans and non-humans as we step into the age of Artificial Intelligence.

 

The term artificial in the title refers not only to AI-driven technologies that interact with, simulate, or even exploit human desires for friendship, intimacy, love and sex, but also evokes its Latin root, artificium in its sense of clever means of cunning and deception designed to create illusions and disguise reality.

 

Intimacy and love are traditionally built through iterative, day-to-day interactions: mutual attention, generosity, and emotional sharing. Romance scammers have long demonstrated how easily this dynamic can be emulated. Now, algorithmic processes can do it too, thanks to the continuous perfection of natural language processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs) mirroring emotional connections and triggering human responses that are indistinguishable from those experienced with fellow humans.

 

What does the intersection of human desires and machine-driven interactions reveal about the evolving dynamics of love, companionship, and emotional vulnerabilities in a world increasingly shaped by technology? How does this phenomenon sharpen our understanding of empathy, kinship, and emotional dependence in the age of AI?

 

Replika, one of the most popular AI companion apps, reportedly has 30 million users. As with many dating apps, the primary reason users stay on the platform is the desire for a conversational partner who is always available, never busy, never asleep and unconditionally agreeing and supporting.

 

While traditional social networks and dating apps offer a means of connecting humans with other humans, companion AI chatbots promise the connection itself. We are witnessing a cultural shift that subtly yet significantly redefines the essence of what it means to love and be loved, and ultimately, to be human.

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Humans don’t need super-intelligent, sentient AI to perceive relationships as meaningful. Already in 1966 Joseph Weizenbaum’s first chatbot ELIZA showed how easily people could anthropomorphize a computer program working through a simple suite of questions and responses, and disclose intimate thoughts to it.

 

The exhibition Artificial Intimacies features works by international artists, examining these processes through four interconnected conceptual axes: Sycophancy & Narcissism, Cuteness & Gamification, Deception & Manipulation and Violence & Control.

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More info about the exhibition ARTIFICIAL INTIMACIES

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