Artist and computer scientist Lauren Lee McCarthy has spent days working virtually as a human Alexa in strangers homes. Shes created a 24-hour machine-driven cocktail party where software controls the actions and conversation of the human host. Shes acted as a real-life follower for people curious about what it would be like to have an actual but hidden observer.
For McCarthy, there are few things more intriguing than examining how human beings are adapting to the prevalence of artificial intelligence and the surveillance, automation, and algorithmic living it brings to their lives.
The systems we build both technical and social shape the way we live together and relate to each other, she says. We tend to think of the apps and tools we use as a neutral presence, but theyre not neutral. There are so many design decisions that go into them based on an assumption of who the user is and what their goals are. These tools are reinforcing and accelerating the world were heading toward, and I feel its important to question all that.
McCarthy will be pursuing those questions as the 2022-23 Visiting Artist at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. Currently on sabbatical from her position as an associate professor at UCLA Design Media Arts, McCarthy creates performance-based work using installations, video, software, photography, and sculpture to explore the technological and social systems humans simultaneously build for themselves.
McCarthy first found herself drawn to the intersection of art and technology as an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Ive always liked art, but had gotten the message early that it was just a hobby, she says. Math was also a good fit for me, so I started out studying computer science. At that time in 2008, it felt like there was a lot of emphasis on technical possibilities without much questioning of the social implications of those possibilities. One day, I wandered into the art department and found people who were asking those questions. I began studying both fields simultaneously and putting them together.
Her award-winning work focuses largely on interactive performances that invite viewers to engage with her and with AI technology. In the series of work titled Lauren, for example, she assumes the duties of a virtual personal assistant for up to a week in homes equipped with custom-designed networked smart devices that allow her to control switches, door locks, faucets, and various electronic devices. Her attempt to be more effective than AI raises questions on the tension between intimacy and privacy, convenience versus agency, and the role of human labor in the future of automation.
Each project asks different questions, McCarthy says. In this series, I was wondering what it means to invite AI into our homes. Where is the boundary between an intimate private space and a public one that can be managed and optimized?
In another performance piece called Follower, McCarthy invites volunteers to download an app and sign up to be physically and surreptitiously followed by the artist for a day. Although participants are notified when the process begins, they never see their follower, receiving only a single photo of themselves at the end of the day. The project explores the desire on the part of some to share their lives without the complexity of forging a new relationship.
I follow all day, but maybe they never even notice me or see me, she says. I have an intense experience with this person for a day, and I think they have an intense experience with me, but we never speak.
McCarthy is also the creator of p5.js, an open-source art and education platform designed to increase access and diversity in learning to code. She developed the platform through The Processing Foundation, which works to expand communities of technology and the arts to include those who have not historically had access to learning to code.
When I started coding in tech spaces, I saw how the dynamics in many of them kept people from feeling welcome, she says. We decided to create p5.js with a different set of values, making it clear that the most important thing is that people feel they have access and are included. The community prioritizes that in every decision. The platform is very collaborative, and communities are springing up around it. It now has a user base of a few million people, has been translated into different languages, and is taught around the world.
At HAI, McCarthy anticipates hosting guest lectures and workshops and incorporating the perspective of students and the Stanford community into an ongoing project concerning human reproduction in the age of AI.
Im interested in the future of reproduction, as AI increasingly provides the ability to predict outcomes in areas such as DNA sequencing and screening in utero, she says. What does that mean in terms of making decisions about the start of life for someone? Im excited to talk with a lot of different people at HAI who might be thinking around these spaces and to see what art might come out of these discussions.
Artificial intelligence, McCarthy says, is changing the dynamics of the art world, as artists consider its implications through their work, use new technological tools to create art, and deal with algorithms that increasingly determine what art is viewed online. Artists, in turn, must be among those providing computer scientists with expanded insight into the design and deployment of AI that benefits all members of society.
If we want a world thats more equitable, then we need to look not only at what technology were building but whos doing the building, she says. Art is a way to bring different people into that conversation and to ask questions that arent always easy to ask within an engineering or science framework. Its a way of pointing out a possible future that we may not yet have imagined. As for myself, Im not saying Heres the future we should have. Im just asking What if?
Stanford HAI's mission is to advance AI research, education, policy, and practice to improve the human condition.Learn more.
Continued here:
Lauren Lee McCarthy: Exploring the Human Relationship with AI - Stanford HAI
- World Health Organization reference values for human semen characteristics [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 6th, 2010]
- Economic consequences of overweight and obesity in infertility: a framework for evaluating the costs and outcomes of fertility care [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 6th, 2010]
- Maternal metabolism and obesity: modifiable determinants of pregnancy outcome [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 6th, 2010]
- Brain imaging studies of appetite in the context of obesity and the menstrual cycle [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 6th, 2010]
- The impact of body mass index on semen parameters and reproductive hormones in human males: a systematic review with meta-analysis [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 6th, 2010]
- Options for fertility preservation in prepubertal boys [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 6th, 2010]
- Xenografting of testicular tissue from an infant human donor results in accelerated testicular maturation [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Karyotype of miscarriages in relation to maternal weight [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Endoglandular trophoblast, an alternative route of trophoblast invasion? Analysis with novel confrontation co-culture models [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Regulation of extravillous trophoblast invasion by uterine natural killer cells is dependent on gestational age [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Functional regulation of thymic stromal lymphopoietin on proliferation and invasion of trophoblasts in human first-trimester pregnancy [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Home self-administration of vaginal misoprostol for medical abortion at 50-63 days compared with gestation of below 50 days [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Prospective study of the forearm bone mineral density of long-term users of the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Functional attenuation of human sperm by novel, non-surfactant spermicides: precise targeting of membrane physiology without affecting structure [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Characteristics indicating adenomyosis coexisting with leiomyomas: a case-control study [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- The risk of post-molar gestational trophoblastic neoplasia is higher in heterozygous than in homozygous complete hydatidiform moles [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Cumulative ongoing pregnancy rate achieved with oocyte vitrification and cleavage stage transfer without embryo selection in a standard infertility program [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Pregnancy outcome in female childhood cancer survivors [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Offering excess oocyte aspiration and vitrification to patients undergoing stimulated artificial insemination cycles can reduce the multiple pregnancy risk and accumulate oocytes for later use [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Avoidance of weekend oocyte retrievals during GnRH antagonist treatment by simple advancement or delay of hCG administration does not adversely affect IVF live birth outcomes [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Who should pay for assisted reproductive techniques? Answers from patients, professionals and the general public in Germany [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Sperm donor limits that control for the 'relative' risk associated with the use of open-identity donors [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Long-term cryostorage of sperm in a human sperm bank does not damage progressive motility concentration [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Screening for biomarkers of spermatogonia within the human testis: a whole genome approach [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2010]
- Avoiding transgenerational risks of mitochondrial DNA disorders: a morally acceptable reason for sex selection? [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Cross border reproductive care in six European countries [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Morphometric dimensions of the human sperm head depend on the staining method used [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- ESX1 gene expression as a robust marker of residual spermatogenesis in azoospermic men [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Innovative virtual reality measurements for embryonic growth and development [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Consecutive or non-consecutive recurrent miscarriage: is there any difference in carrier status? [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- A longitudinal study of contraception and pregnancies in the same women followed for a quarter of a century [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Predictors of bleeding and user satisfaction during consecutive use of the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Direct proportional relationship between endometrioma size and ovarian parenchyma inadvertently removed during cystectomy, and its implication on the management of enlarged endometriomas [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Large prospective, pregnancy and infant follow-up trial assures the health of 1000 fetuses conceived after treatment with the GnRH antagonist ganirelix during controlled ovarian stimulation [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Altered aquaporin expression in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: hyperandrogenism in follicular fluid inhibits aquaporin-9 in granulosa cells through the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathway [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Fast-release orodispersible tramadol as analgesia in hysterosalpingography with a metal cannula or a balloon catheter [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Xenotransplantation of cryopreserved human ovarian tissue into murine back muscle [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Predictors of psychological distress in patients starting IVF treatment: infertility-specific versus general psychological characteristics [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Psychological adjustment, knowledge and unmet information needs in women undergoing PGD [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Mothers of IVF and spontaneously conceived twins: a comparison of prenatal maternal expectations, coping resources and maternal stress [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Psychological well-being and sexarche in women with polycystic ovary syndrome [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Is human fecundity declining in Western countries? [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: May 20th, 2010]
- Impaired glucose tolerance, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome in polycystic ovary syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 5th, 2010]
- Current achievements and future research directions in ovarian tissue culture, in vitro follicle development and transplantation: implications for fertility preservation [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 5th, 2010]
- Human studies on genetics of the age at natural menopause: a systematic review [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 5th, 2010]
- Beyond oxygen: complex regulation and activity of hypoxia inducible factors in pregnancy [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 5th, 2010]
- Current knowledge of the aetiology of human tubal ectopic pregnancy [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 5th, 2010]
- Economic contraction and birth outcomes: an integrative review [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 5th, 2010]
- Teratogenic mechanisms of medical drugs [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 5th, 2010]
- Levels of semenogelin in human spermatozoa decrease during capacitation: involvement of reactive oxygen species and zinc [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Apoptosis and meiotic segregation in ejaculated sperm from Robertsonian translocation carrier patients [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- In humans, zona pellucida glycoprotein-1 binds to spermatozoa and induces acrosomal exocytosis [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Variants of the EPPIN gene affect the risk of idiopathic male infertility in the Han-Chinese population [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Epidermal clitoral inclusion cysts: not a rare complication of female genital mutilation [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- PCOSMIC: a multi-centre randomized trial in women with PolyCystic Ovary Syndrome evaluating Metformin for Infertility with Clomiphene [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Single versus double intrauterine insemination in multi-follicular ovarian hyperstimulation cycles: a randomized trial [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Soluble HLA-G is an independent factor for the prediction of pregnancy outcome after ART: a German multi-centre study [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Obstetric outcomes after transfer of vitrified blastocysts [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Occasional involvement of the ovary in Ewing sarcoma [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Y chromosome microdeletions, sperm DNA fragmentation and sperm oxidative stress as causes of recurrent spontaneous abortion of unknown etiology [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Development and preliminary validation of the fertility status awareness tool: FertiSTAT [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Xenotransplantation of human ovarian tissue to nude mice: comparison between four grafting sites [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Involvement of CFTR in oviductal HCO3- secretion and its effect on soluble adenylate cyclase-dependent early embryo development [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Effect of endometriosis on the protein expression pattern of follicular fluid from patients submitted to controlled ovarian hyperstimulation for in vitro fertilization [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Activin A regulates trophoblast cell adhesive properties: implications for implantation failure in women with endometriosis-associated infertility [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Clinical significance of sperm DNA damage in assisted reproduction outcome [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Fall in implantation rates following ICSI with sperm with high DNA fragmentation [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: June 17th, 2010]
- Prevalence of unsuspected uterine cavity abnormalities diagnosed by office hysteroscopy prior to in vitro fertilization [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]
- Ultra-conservative fertility-sparing strategy for bilateral borderline ovarian tumours: an 11-year follow-up [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]
- Fertility after autologous ovine uterine-tubal-ovarian transplantation by vascular anastomosis to the external iliac vessels [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]
- Uterus transplantation in the baboon: methodology and long-term function after auto-transplantation [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]
- Prestimulation parameters predicting live birth in anovulatory WHO Group II patients undergoing ovulation induction with gonadotrophins [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]
- Transfer of a selected single blastocyst optimizes the chance of a healthy term baby: a retrospective population based study in Australia 2004-2007 [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]
- Disclosure patterns of mode of conception among mothers and fathers-5-year follow-up of the Copenhagen Multi-centre Psychosocial Infertility (COMPI) cohort [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]
- Assisted reproductive technology in Europe, 2006: results generated from European registers by ESHRE [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]
- A decade of sperm washing: clinical correlates of successful insemination outcome [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]
- Sperm DNA integrity in cancer patients before and after cytotoxic treatment [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]
- Speriolin is a novel human and mouse sperm centrosome protein [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]
- No influence of body mass index on first trimester fetal growth [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]
- HLA sharing among couples appears unrelated to idiopathic recurrent fetal loss in Saudi Arabia [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2024] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2010]