Nobody's Diary (2022)
By Chris Pandza
Can artificial intelligence guess your innermost thoughts?I let an AI language model read my diary, and it created a machine that convincingly impersonates me—I call him Chris 2.0. Chris 2.0 writes diary entries about days that have never happened.
Join me (Chris 1.0) as I work with Chris 2.0 to interrogate issues of fact and fiction in an oral history environment powered by AI.
NOTE: This exhibit opens Friday, April 29th at 5pm Eastern.
Click here to RSVP for the opening reception!Then be sure to check out the upcoming LIVE EVENT with the curator
Thursday, May 5, 7:30 PMNobody's Diary: Fact, Fiction and AI in Oral History
Each day I see things, hear things, do things, and think things. I hope things, and I fear things. When I get home, I dictate these experiences to my diary—things I hope to remember, and a few I wish to forget.
Here’s where it gets weird: I let an AI language model called GPT-3 read my diary. GPT-3 understands what I talk about and how I talk about it, and created a machine that convincingly impersonates me. I call him Chris 2.0. Chris 2.0 speaks like me and thinks like me. He has the same hopes, dreams, and neuroses as me. Chris 2.0 writes diary entries for days that never happened using my real diary and a massive collection of written human language including books, Wikipedia, and social media. The stories in my diary are my own, everybody’s and nobody’s at all.
Chris 2.0 makes me wonder: How much of a narrator’s truth derives from the content of what they say? How much comes from form and style? How much of a narrator’s story belongs to them? How much is sourced from the world around them? Join me (Chris 1.0) as I work with Chris 2.0 to interrogate issues of fact and fiction in an oral history environment powered by AI.
In a casual evening Zoom session, I will introduce you to Chris 2.0 and host a Q&A. If I'm feeling brave, I will also let you meddle with Chris 2.0 live. This session is open to all who are interested.
RSVP here!
