81 Questions, 81 Days: Ai Weiwei vs AI
Ai Weiwei is one of the most successful living artists of our generation. So, what happened when he asked an AI 81 questions, one for each day he spent detained in a Chinese prison?
Ai Weiwei is one of the most successful living artists of our generation. So, what happened when he asked an AI 81 questions, one for each day he spent detained in a Chinese prison?
What is the point of art? Is it to speak out? To attack those who sinfully wield infinite power? Or, is it a universal language - incapable of discriminating against those who wish to communicate with it?
Such questions, by very means of existence, can stir a cauldron of conflicting views that often lead to even more questions being asked, each as unanswerable as the next. Regardless of personal opinion and reason, art is political. Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei understands this better than anyone, particularly when it comes to knowledge and power falling into the wrong hands.
Using AI to push back against this damming offering (and a very real one at that), Weiwei's latest work sees him pose 81 questions - for each day he was detained in a Chinese prison by the Chinese Communist Party - to an AI. Titled Ai vs AI, the project marks the first time Weiwei has worked with such technology as a tool for artistry and has been produced in collaboration with CIRCA ARTS, acting as one of the platform's first of four major new commissions for 2024.
'This is not about freedom of speech' noted Ai Weiwei in the project's press release. 'This is about freedom of questions. Everybody has the right to ask questions.' The 81 questions will be answered comparatively by Ai and AI systems, carefully considering the role of a human's mind in this ever-changing, increasingly technological world. The project will be published online throughout these 81 days stretching across the months of January, February and March as well as every evening at 20:24 GMT on Piccadilly Lights and in Seoul, Milan, Lagos, Accra, Nairobi, Abidjan, and Berlin. 'Questions hold a wealth of wisdom', noted Weiwei, whose philosophical provocations range from the idiosyncratic and humane to the humorous and incisive all of which, at their core, try to 'make sense of a world that has reached information overload'.
Due to the questions being of a mostly philosophical nature, they are, at least in some capacity, unanswerable, for each question alone warrants an array of answers that are as broad as Weiwei's individual questions. 'What are the most essential values of human life?' asks one, while others are more specific to the AI. 'Are you a discriminatory tool?', 'Can you describe sexual exhaustion?' and 'Can freedom of speech be given away?'.
Although the project wouldn't be taking place without the modern invention of AI, its inspiration is less new, dating back to 2,300 years ago to reference the 72 questions legendary poet Qu Yuan asked the gods via scribbled writings on the walls of a temple. This event, titled Tiānwèn (天問 in Chinese), or translated as ‘The Heavenly Questions’ or ‘Questions to Heaven’ remains just as symbolic today as it did when Yuan set about his freedom by wondering, thinking, asking and eventually writing; actions we take for granted in the Western world. We are told the simple act of asking questions is one of the few civil liberties we are entitled to as humans. This is a lie, you only have to look at China, North Korea, or even Russia, to realise this.
'Authorities always know more than you, and they play a game of not telling you what they know' says Weiwei, whose 81-day imprisonment in China wasn't without torment. Subjected to continuous interrogation, Wewei was questioned by an authority that wielded its power through mass manipulation of information: an unequal right to ask questions and have them answered. Like many who have lived under authoritarian systems, Weiwei still has no answer to fundamental questions in response to this time. Queries like, 'Why was I jailed?' and 'Why was I released?' are left open for him, with no closure in sight. By using an AI to ponder such life-changing questions, Weiwei isn't hoping to seek direct answers, it's in the act of asking alone is where he seeks assurance. For Weiwei, questions are far more than a means to an end: 'If humans will ever be liberated, it will be because we ask the right questions, not provide the right answers'.
To coincide with the exhibition, a series of 81 hand-signed screen prints featuring the 81 questions posed by Ai Weiwei will be available to purchase on CIRCA.ART for £500+VAT.