The Unreasonable Expressiveness of Empathetic Artificial Mimicry

Research output: Non-textual formPerformance

Abstract / Description of output

'I shouted at my Google Home Mini...’ begins this performance with an artificial voice assistant problematising anthropomorphism, agency, and empathy with non-human others. There is a troubling de-humanising of communication in our interactions with voice assistants, particularly considering the power dynamic implicit in “assistance” and implications for our relationship with humans who also provide it: as simple examples, no longer saying “please” and “thank you” or acknowledging a job well done. In this interactive installation the types of voice recognition and synthesis models used in voice assistants respond to your presence in the room by prompting you to move and speak and then repeating what you say. This is not to expose the models’ linguistic failures, but to explore the possibilities of unpredictable success when the power dynamic of servitude is removed and replaced with one based on mimicry, embodiment and entrainment, the foundations of empathetic communication.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationInspace
Publication statusPublished - 2023
EventArticulating Data: : vocalisation, machine listening, and the (in)security of language in a digital age - Inspace, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Duration: 11 May 202312 May 2023
https://articulatingdata.com/

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Deep Reinforcement Learning
  • Embodiment
  • sound
  • Virtual Assistants
  • Speech recognition
  • Text-To-Speech synthesis
  • Empathy
  • Distributed Cognition

Type (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Art
  • Sound component
  • Theatre

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