AI is often described as a "black box" – even those that created it don't know exactly how it will behave. This piece is designed to give the feeling of a black box, as well as moments of a "black mirror" – the effect when a viewer sees only themselves reflected in a black screen. We have created AI systems in our image, making them feel human. Yet the notion that super intelligent AI will work in our interest is a fairy tale – it has no basis in reality. The smartest human alive cannot conceive of a being 2x smarter, let alone 1000x smarter. The idea that we will safely control a super intelligent being may be the last fairy tale.
The length of this piece is long enough that a viewer may simply give up – a symbol of our current apathy towards this existential risk. The duration (10:01) is also a mirrored number made of binary code digits. The music consists of the same notes repeated, but evolved through subtle mutations meant to evoke the development of AI from something we recognize towards something utterly unrecognizable.
Note: AI was not used in the creation of this piece. All text and audio are created by the (human) artist.
