I Spy with My AI
By Rosa Wevers & Roos Groothuizen
From period-tracking apps to facial recognition technology, we often share data about our bodies with AI systems without considering what happens to it. How can art make people more aware of the risks involved? And what ethical dilemmas do artists encounter when using these data and technologies in their artistic practice? In the artistic research project I Spy with my AI, researchers, artists and art institutions explore questions surrounding AI and the surveillance of the human body.
A facial recognition system in a supermarket mistakenly identifies a passer-by as a convicted criminal. A commercial app collects intimate data from a teenager to predict when she will menstruate, then sells that information to Meta. A biometric system analyses how a political refugee speaks to verify which region she comes from. Because the system does not recognise her dialect, her asylum application is put at risk.
From our voices to our faces, data generated by our bodies are increasingly analysed and monitored using AI, without us having any say in the matter. This project examines how artists can contribute to a better understanding and greater awareness of AI-driven surveillance. To this end, we are developing an interactive art installation that makes the AI-driven surveillance of the body both tangible and understandable.
We then use this development process to reflect on the responsibility artists themselves bear for the technologies they use and the data they collect in their artistic practice. Together with a community of artists and researchers from the creative industries, we will identify the ethical issues that arise in artistic research and practices involving AI. We will also collect strategies for addressing these issues responsibly.
The rapid development of AI raises urgent ethical questions about the erosion of bodily integrity and the potential risks this entails. Through I Spy with my AI, we are developing new knowledge about the role art can play in critically examining the meaning and societal impact of emerging technologies such as AI. We are also developing a toolkit to help artists, makers and students navigate the ethical questions surrounding the use of AI in artistic practice.
Partners
This artistic research project brings together Rosa Wevers, Senior Researcher Art & Technology at the Professorship Image in Context (Research Centre Art & Society, Hanze University of Applied Sciences), and cultural institution IMPAKT (Centre for Media Culture), in collaboration with artists and partners from the field: artist Roos Groothuizen, artist collective WERC, and digital rights organisation Bits of Freedom as an external stakeholder.
This research is co-funded by the Taskforce for Applied Research SIA, part of the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Image: Roos Groothuizen