Ghost in the Machine – PAM
>> Anti-AI Investigative Documentary & Panel
This summer, Human Intelligence® partnered with the Portland Art Museum to host a special screening of a groundbreaking investigative documentary that had just come off of a Sundance premiere earlier this year.
The filmmaker exposes artificial intelligence as a technology fundamentally misshapen in both outcomes and intent by racism, misogyny, and faulty eugenic theory, rather than the “helpful” system of unbiased algorithms its billionaire power brokers claim.
>> Who built these [AI] Systems and who benefits?
The film blends historical excavation with contemporary analysis to confront essential questions: Who built these systems, on whose values, to whose benefit; and at whose expense? The film is both illuminating and unsettling, leading a visceral exploration through the technology that now touches nearly every aspect of modern life.
Prior to the documentary, Brother vs Robot, an electronic dance rock band from Portland, Oregon, screened the music video for their single, Washed. The song exemplifies what Human Intelligence® celebrates: human process, experimentation, and craft embedded in a finished work.The video reflects the same hands-on process used to create the track, layering multiple single-take performances, practical video synthesis, live feedback projection, and meticulous human editing, without the use of AI tools.
>> Human Intelligence® celebrates human process
Following the screening, Human Intelligence Co-Founder Ned Hayes moderated a discussion with panelists David Cress, producer of Portlandia; Theater Artist Hazel Briar, PhD; IP Attorney Delfina Homen; and Jack Phan of the Oregon AI Accelerator. And the audience of more than 200 brought great engagement with their questions, comments, and reactions to the film.
From celebrating the diversity of the experts represented in the film, to lamenting the impact of data centers on the environment and the communities in which they’re built, to questioning how we support artists in the age of AI, to furiously protesting the widespread theft upon which generative AI is dependent, attendees unanimously demonstrated a passion for human creativity. The panel discussed the need for all to give creators Consent, Credit and Compensation for their work, and consensus on this important point was universal.
The panel also engaged in back-and-forth discussion of the relative value of AI tools (consensus was that they are much more destructive than productive), with the sole dissenting voice that of Jack Phan, head of the Oregon AI Accelerator, whose statements that demonstrated a false equivalency on the AI front were vociferously rejected by the audience.
>> We Have the Power to Shape the Future
As Hayes made clear in his closing remarks, Human Intelligence is fiercely pro-human: We support and fight for human agency, creativity, and art. We stand against the machines – and those who created and evangelize them – that depend on the theft of human-made work. We believe it should be clear whether something being watched, read, listened to, or purchased is a work made entirely by humans, or generated by an unthinking, unfeeling, unknowable algorithm.
“The future that we’ve heard about that is coming our way is not the only future imaginable. We have AGENCY – we have the capacity to change that future. I’d urge you all to think about what you will do to make the future into something we choose, instead of something happening to us, without our permission and without our knowledge. We have the voices, and the power to make a difference – we can make the future what we want it to be. That’s what Human Intelligence is here to say, and I’d like to thank you all for coming to hear this – and to think about the future.”
– Ned Hayes, Founder of Human Intelligence.
We are grateful to the Portland Art Museum’s Tomorrow Theater for allowing us to use their incredible venue for this showing and to the panelists for their insight, and to all those who attended. We hope to host more events in the future, and welcome your suggestions, questions, and comments about the event.