TABOO - TRANSGRESSION - TRANSCENDENCE

For the last two years I have explored Artifecal Intelligence through research, art residencies, and creative collaborations with AI systems, bioartists, and scientists. I first learned this term from a ChatGPT/SunoAI glitch that occurred while we were analyzing the nature/culture divide, and since then I have come to view Artificial Intelligence (AI) as Artifecal.

Indiscriminate releases of AI systems have generated enormous quantities of excreta, alongside a very tense duality about the nature of AI itself. Expectations are growing that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) or Transformative AI (TAI) will take over 25% of human jobs within this decade. Compute power dedicated to training AI models has scaled at a factor of 4-5 per year over the last 10 years, while multiplying energy use by orders of magnitude. For example, Microsoft has signed deals for 5GW/10GW data centers for Open AI, with projected energy requirements equal to the annual output of Portugal (43.8 TWh). Parts of the AI community tremble in the face of AI’s imagined demonic power of destruction, rendering it taboo, while others blithely transgress into a wildly erotic AI death drive.

This avalanche of for-profit enshittified slop introduces global challenges for humanity and our biosphere. While ethicists are focused on the ‘alignment’ of superhuman intelligence systems to human safety, they are overlooking these artifecal processes. Artifecal excreta mimics impaired fecal metabolisms that can lead to dementia, and further threatens social and mental health worldwide. I will share the transcendent possibilities of Desludging the Artifecal in AI that transforms artifecal excess into artifical dreams.