Let’s collaborate

‘Human/AI Node 2455 Active’
by Chris McLinden

Human-made Art

This sculpture explores and portrays the concept of ‘Collective Intelligence’, one of many new knowledge concepts created as part of the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence (AI) technology innovation portfolio.

The sculpture forms part of Chris’s ‘Just Picking Your Brains’ series of sculptures, drawings and paintings.

Collective Intelligence is increasingly identified as one of the key future forecasted outcomes of AI, as it develops to ‘work alongside’ and greatly enhance human creativity and innovation.

It is regularly framed within the AI world as an extremely positive potential outcome of AI strategic growth, for human benefit. A reason for humans to not fear AI, but instead readily embrace it. An interesting development at a time when there is a wave of human anxiety over the future of AI.

‘Collective Intelligence’ proposes that human brains will eventually collaborate with AI to form ‘AI nodes’. A combination of biological and digital intelligence melded together using millions of nodes, to achieve maximum ‘collective brain power’.

Humans will essentially become part of the network capacity for AI to draw upon, adding the ‘softer skills’ AI does not have as its main strengths.

Whether you are positive or negative on AI however, there is no escaping the underlying fact that every time we use a digital device, especially smart phones, we are all providing further new data to train AI. But who is training who?

The sculpture is constructed to portray a future human/digital ‘AI node’, with the wood (biological) neuron elements tightly linked and entwined by the brass wiring (digital) connectivity. Every node in the series is different and unique in structure and form.

This node sits horizontally to enable a core of thicker copper wire to run through the centre of the sculpture. The wire connects the node into a ‘network’, set up between the two red rubber coated mobile phones placed freestanding alongside the node, and each side of the sculpture.

This is a reference to the inescapable fact that all data from one AI user, can instantaneously be moved around and through the many millions of nodes which form an AI model. This is how AI learns and processes knowledge so quickly, compared to a human simply talking to other humans. It is also a reminder that the answers to your AI questions, and the questions themselves are never just yours.