An artist talk and book launch exploring worlds shaped by AI

Conversation with artist Lawrence Lek and Professor Iyad Rahwan, followed by a book launch for AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future with science-fiction author Qiufan Chen

NOX is a speculative world in the near future, inhabited by self-driving cars that are more than a mere part of the urban landscape — they are sentient beings, using their built-in sensory systems to engage with the world around them. Emotions and creativity, considered fundamentally human abilities, are bestowed upon self-driving cars, with far-reaching consequences for them and their role within the highly controlled environment of the smart city.

In their conversation, artist Lawrence Lek and Iyad Rahwan (Director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Founder and Director of the Center for Humans & Machines) delve into the world of NOX and its underlying themes of intelligent machines, smart systems and Interspecies collaboration. How can speculation and worldbuilding help us explore growing human-machine interdependencies? How do we imagine the psychological, moral and political ramifications of a smart city reality built on automation and surveillance? How distant might a future be, in which machines could feel emotions — and would they be capable of evoking them in us humans?

The conversation invites us to explore the universe of NOX and the actors operating within it, and to question how agency, consciousness and empathy might develop in a world shaped by AI.

This is followed by a book presentation of AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future with award-winning science-fiction author Qiufan Chen. Conceived in collaboration with Kai-Fu Lee, an internationally recognised expert on artificial intelligence, the book presents in ten vignettes a world shaped by AI less than twenty years from now and raises urgent questions of our shared futures.

Programme

Friday, 27 October 2023
17:30–21:30
Kranzler Eck, Berlin

17:30 Entry and exhibition visit
19:00 Conversation with Lawrence Lek and Prof. Iyad Rahwan
20:30 Book launch of AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future with author Qiufan Chen

In English, with event ticket (the event ticket includes the visit to the exhibition)