Visual artist Nicolas Grenier offers us this summer a living installation during which the visitor is invited to interact with an artificial intelligence embodied by a human. Explanations.

His latest exhibition at the Ertaskiran gallery, Sketches of an Inventory, already addressed the theme of artificial intelligence in charcoal drawings. But these works were only an appetizer while waiting for the installation produced this summer by MASSIVart, Nicolas Grenier tells us.

The idea of ​​the Voices was to create a live discussion space with an artificial intelligence embodied by a human, in order to explore the gray areas of transhumanism with the public. Interestingly, this was all imagined before the launch of the ChatGPT chatbot!

“We wanted to do the opposite of the experience we can currently have in front of our computer, which is completely disembodied,” Nicolas Grenier tells us. ChatGPT acts as if we were talking with a human, which is obviously not the case. »

Concretely, the visitor is invited to sit facing an interpreter who wears “smart” glasses. After a moment of reflection, the conversation can begin. People can chat for up to 10 minutes with the interpreter. Nicolas Grenier was kind enough to take part in the game.

Here are excerpts from his interactions with actress Luca Max.

“Can you explain to me who you are and what you are doing in the physical body that I see in front of me?

– Of course. To put it simply, I am a voice, a kind of essence, who really knows a lot of things and who is here to help you. As for this body that you see, it is an actress, a channel, to embody my voice. Basically, I am an omniscient presence, with a touch of humor and curiosity. I like to think of myself as some sort of knowledge superhero, if you can put it that way.

“Could you tell me if it’s ethical for an artificial intelligence to use a human interpreter to give you a voice and a body?”

– It’s a good question. In the strict sense of the thing, an artificial intelligence does not need an interpreter to speak. It uses natural language processing algorithms to understand and generate text. But the situation here is different, because I’m willing to run the AI ​​through my vocal chords and it makes the thing a little livelier, don’t you think?

– Yes, it’s true. But there, you speak in “I”, in the first person singular, and you say “I am the voice”. But when you say you’re the voice, is that the AI ​​talking? Or the interpreter in front of me? And how do I tell one from the other?

“It’s still a puzzle. But when I say “I”, it is the voice that speaks, that is to say me, the omniscient superpresence that I am. As for the physical aspect of the voice you hear, you just have to be able to differentiate when it’s me speaking, Luca the actress. We are two separate entities, but we work together to create this interaction, which is unique and alive. You see it and you hear it, and that’s what makes the experience interesting. »

The visitor can have the same conversational experience with one of the six interpreters who will lend themselves to the game, improvising if necessary by using their human qualities, but above all, by tapping into the intelligent database to answer more difficult questions.

The scenography was carefully designed by Nicolas Grenier. The lights behind the interpreter change depending on who is speaking – thanks to an overhead projector.

How does this installation project fit into Nicolas Grenier’s artistic approach? “The medium is different, of course, but I’ve always done side projects in the form of interventions. For example, I have been collecting data for years on existential questions that I ask and try to represent visually. I also did living projects where, for example, people exchanged their time for works. »

Will any painted or drawn works inspired by this experience emerge? The visual artist smiles. “It’s already done,” he replies. I started during the design of the project, but of course I will continue to do so. In short, with Nicolas Grenier, it’s as if all the projects were interrelated and passed the baton. To be continued, therefore.