Es Devlin owns a really great bell. It\u2019s a singing bowl \u2013 originally used in Buddhist chanting rituals but now found in most quality yoga classes. This particular bell hits just the right frequency to make my temples vibrate pleasantly and, from the way the others gathered around the workbench at Oxford Kilns fall silent when Devlin strikes it, I don\u2019t think I\u2019m alone in feeling my head go ping.<\/p>\n
Devlin is calling order on a group of artists, AI researchers, spiritual leaders, academics and experts from global tech gathered at the kilns to discuss AI and make pots at the AI and Earth conference organised by the artist and stage designer.<\/p>\n
double quotation markIt\u2019s an antidote to eyes on screens and hands dancing over keyboards<\/p>\n
Although Devlin arranged it, she doesn\u2019t know who we all are. \u201cI asked the university team to invite AI practitioners with a divergent set of viewpoints,\u201d she says. \u201cI witnessed a parallel practice at an artists\u2019 retreat at a monastery last year. The monks encourage guests to introduce themselves by first names only. So, for example, at a retreat for climate activists led by diplomat Christiana Figueres, oil company executives and activists meditated, cooked and washed dishes together before learning one another\u2019s often opposing positions, which made finding common ground more possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I felt the most appropriate place to hold the conference would be in a potters\u2019 workshop\u2019 \u2026 Devlin. Photograph: Ellie Kurttz<\/p>\n
Our conference is in preparation for the opening ceremony of the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities<\/a>, the biggest single building project that Oxford University has ever embarked on and, unlike most of its look-but-don\u2019t-touch real estate, the ground floor of this centre is open to the public and includes a gallery, cinema, two theatres and the world\u2019s first<\/a> Passivhaus<\/a> concert hall. As well as standard humanities \u2013 languages, philosophy and histories \u2013 the centre is home to the Institute for Ethics in AI<\/a>, a fast-growing area of moral philosophy and the department with which Devlin has collaborated.<\/p>\n The installation 360 Vessels<\/a> by Devlin and the American composer Nico Muhly<\/a> will be performed at the centre\u2019s opening festival. The 360 pots \u2013 ours (and others made by the public at workshops) \u2013 will be arranged on three circular tables amid the audience beneath the octagonal dome of the centre\u2019s great hall. \u201cA vessel for every degree of difference of point of view,\u201d says Devlin.<\/p>\n The University Chamber Choir will perform Muhly\u2019s choral piece, which draws on ideas from verse by the 17th-century theologian and poet Thomas Traherne<\/a>. While we make our pots today, we will discuss the impact of AI on the Earth. In subsequent workshops, participants will hear an edited version of today\u2019s conversation as they work and talk.<\/p>\n And if all the layers of reference and meaning here are now making your head ping, well that\u2019s how Devlin works. Whether making set designs for theatre and pop stars\u2019 stadium tours or creating her own art for exhibition, she wants co-authors, collaborators and audience participation \u2013 the art doesn\u2019t happen unless everyone mucks in and engages with the ideas and a physical experience.<\/p>\n Here, the mucking in is literal: sleeves are rolled up and clay kneaded. Two potters patiently guide us as we coil clay into vessels, make pinch pots and decorate and shape some simple bowls into more embellished pieces.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt the most appropriate place to hold the conference would be in a potters\u2019 workshop \u2013 with our hands in contact with 160m-year-old Jurassic clay! It\u2019s an antidote to eyes in front of screens with our hands dancing over keyboards,\u201d says Devlin.<\/p>\n We may not know each other\u2019s names but some great ones are thrown up in the debate. There is, of course, Alan Turing <\/a>and whether the 1950 Turing test of a machine\u2019s ability to think should be updated to look for compassion. Isaac Asimov\u2019s Three Laws of Robotics<\/a>, first introduced in a published short story in 1942, are also discussed. Ethan Mollick, author of the 2024 book Co-Intelligence<\/a>, gets a shout-out for his centaurs or cyborgs concept describing how humans use AI for clearly defined tasks or for close collaboration. Conversation also covered the Compost computer<\/a>, a prototype machine that converts bioenergy into electricity, grounding technology back in the land. One participant had just been reading Jorge Luis Borges\u2019s 1945 short story The Aleph<\/a>, about a point in space that contains all other points; another had just got back from discussing AI with the Dalai Lama.<\/p>\n Creating a viewpoint \u2026 crafting one of the 360 vessels. Photograph: Ellie Kurttz<\/p>\n Special mention goes to one of the potters leading the workshop who noted that this whole conversation was a luxury. She explained that her family came from what many would call the third, or developing, world, and that no one there was asked what they thought about AI, it was just happening. A good point well made on behalf of the majority of the world\u2019s population.<\/p>\n After the conference, Devlin said she was pleased with how it had gone. She had been thinking about the participant who explained that, while he could understand all the logical reasons not to anthropomorphise AI, he couldn\u2019t resist it. Devlin herself has been exploring large language models for a decade now and she is interested in the language used to describe AI. She had read in Shoshana Zuboff\u2019s book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism about digital shadows, and it made her think about Peter Pan losing his shadow.<\/p>\n She concluded: \u201cI am aware that my art and my words and my every choice, my presence, is being used to train the algorithms that concentrate wealth among a small number of individuals, and, in spite of this \u2013 however confusing, however painful \u2013 I would like to try to stitch my digital shadow back on to my feet and dance with it myself, and invite others to dance with it too.\u201d<\/p>\n Es Devlin and Nico Muhly: 360 Vessels \u2013 A Choral Installation<\/a> will be on show at Open House<\/a>, a free festival at the Schwarzman Centre, Oxford, on 25 April<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Es Devlin owns a really great bell. 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