The history of and rise of artificial intelligence fills me with wonder as well as some dread, a combination not uncommon in most of us so this exhibition at The Barbican gives some indication of the current state of play.
Beginning in pre-history, the concept of something more than human may be found, moving through to Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine, the Bombe used in breaking the Enigma code during World War II ,
through to more recent engineering breakthroughs including this first robotic hand, designed and built in 1995 by Yoki Matsuoka.
Moving on to programmes this one, to learn what images were considered interesting and create them encouraged me to add my information.
It was odd to follow instructions: make an ugly face, and then hear a machine tell me “nice sandals!”
More visual programmes included this one by Benjamin Grosser, showing how a computer looks at a film: this screenshot is,appropriately, enough a scene from The Matrix.
And another one: learning to see by Nexus Studios with Memo Akten – how AI uses algorithms. I liked this poetic interpretation of the image on the left.
Moving onto medical applications, an image of neurons in the human brain may be used in developing our understanding of their functions
while 3D bioprinting of human organs is already in existence.
This is just a hint of what’s covered; to see more visit the show, on till 26th of August.