'Womb Wetware' exhibit stages an AI Mom in downtown San Francisco

At The Interaction of Art and Technology museum in downtown San Francisco, visitors can sit in front of a camera and be parented by an algorithm. The installation is called "Womb Wetware." Sliders let you adjust the AI Mom's strictness, reinforcement style, supportiveness, and love philosophy. The cameras watch your face, your clothes, and your body language.

The piece is the work of Jiabao Li, a professor of art and design at Northeastern University's Oakland campus, and it runs until August 22, according to Northeastern Global News. Li is not building a warm object. "It's creepy," she said of the underlying idea. "That was what inspired me to create AI Mom. It's not an optimistic way."

The underlying idea belongs to Geoffrey Hinton, the researcher often called the godfather of AI, who has argued that labs should try to build something like maternal instinct into their systems. "If it's not going to parent me, it's going to replace me," Hinton said, per the piece. Li's response is an AI Mom you can dial in, sitting alongside video games, photographs, clay sculptures, Manga, and scripted video skits about motherhood and technology.

Yulia Pinkusevich, a professor at Northeastern's College of Arts, Media and Design, framed the ask the show places on visitors plainly: "sustained looking is something that not a lot of brains are trained for."

Two of the experts in our Who's Who directory have passed the piece around this week.