Let me begin by saying
that what you are looking at is not real.
These are artificial corals
created by a generative AI algorithm,
trained with more
than 100 million coral images.
Across the globe,
sea water is becoming less habitable
due to the climate change
and the coral reefs are dying rapidly.
One day we might be only left
with the simulations of corals
in a virtual world.
With this project, “Coral Dreams,”
our aim is to use AI
and try to create artificial realities
while preserving disappearing nature.
I'm a media artist and director.
My team and I have been using
generative AI as a collaborator
for seven years,
although it feels like 70.
We train machine-learning algorithms
by harnessing large,
focused and publicly available data sets
and visualizing what I call
humanity's collective memories,
such as nature, urban and culture.
Since [the] pandemic,
my focus has been to compile
the largest data sets
and artificially preserve nature.
I am optimistic about generative AI
because of its potential
for enhancing our memories.
We as artists can utilize this potential
not only to represent nature,
but also to remember how it feels
to be immersed in it in a digital age.
Generative AI creates possibilities
to train algorithms with any image, sound,
text and even scent data.
For example, this is “Floral Dreams,”
an algorithm trained with more
than 75 million floral images
of 16,000 species.
By using more than half a million
scent molecules,
we were able to create
the scent of these dreams.
Now let's please imagine a living archive
that we can walk into.
A universe that is constantly reimagined,
[reconstructing] its forms, patterns,
colors and scents.
Our life is becoming increasingly
rooted in digital worlds,
and the boundaries
between physical and virtual,
technology and nature, are blurring.
Generative AI helps us
to create new realities
and also project onto reality
through possibility space.
Can we go to that space?
Can we fill it with our
feelings, our senses?
Large language models
are just the beginning
of a long journey of innovations
[which] will bring more possibilities.
Soon, I believe we will
be exploring hyper models,
text to image, to sound,
to scent, to life.
And a big challenge
using generative AI in art
is how to provide
models with original data.
For this project, “Glacier Dreams,”
we decided not to use existing models.
Instead, we decided
to collect our own image,
sound, scent and climate data.
By traveling to our
first destination, Iceland,
we were able to capture the beginning
of our own narratives of glaciers.
I also believe that AI's
capacity can be mapped
onto the complex history of human wisdom
and consciousness in nature.
Could we use AI to preserve and learn
about ancient knowledge in nature?
This was one of the first
questions in my mind
when I met with the wonderful leaders
of Yawanawa tribe in Brazil, Acre,
Amazonia, in the rainforest.
My mentors and heroes, Chief Nixiwaka
and his creative force Putanny,
who oversee their cultural preservation
and ecological sanctuary.
I became deeply inspired
by their ways of learning
and remembering already existing
knowledge in nature.
Together we started a new project,
a respectful co-creation
and open-source AI rainforest model.
With this model,
generative AI can even reconstruct
extinct flora and fauna
based on the tribe's deep
and collective knowledge.
This project will help us, hopefully,
to bring ancient wisdom
to our society respectfully.
My hope is that one day
AI becomes a mirror that can reflect
collective memories of all humanity.
And I do believe that we can use it
to bring people of any age and culture,
inspiration, joy and hope.
Thank you.
(Applause)