A new renaissance in art: Refik Anadol on the AI transformation of art

Summary

In this talk, media artist Refik Anadol discusses his innovative work at the intersection of AI, data, and art. He shares his journey from his early fascination with computers to his current projects that blend technology with nature and human emotion. Anadol explores the potential of machine learning to create immersive art experiences and emphasizes the importance of using technology responsibly to benefit society and the environment.

Takeaways

• 🌐 Mira Lane introduced Refik Anadol, a media artist renowned for using AI and data to create immersive experiences.
• 🎨 Refik Anadol collaborates with diverse institutions like MIT, NASA, and even indigenous communities, showcasing the broad impact of his work.
• 🖥️ Anadol's journey with technology began at a young age, with an early fascination for computers leading to a career at the intersection of art and AI.
• 🌟 His work focuses on public art and the concept of data pigmentation, pushing the boundaries of traditional art forms.
• 🌌 Anadol's projects often involve large-scale data sets, aiming to capture collective human memories and experiences.
• 💡 He emphasizes the importance of imagination and creativity in the age of AI, believing that art can inspire and bring joy even with advanced technologies.
• 🏥 His artwork is not confined to galleries; it extends to hospitals and schools, aiming to provide hope and inspiration.
• 🌳 Anadol's work also explores the preservation of nature, collaborating with Google AI Quantum team to visualize quantum circuits and generate art.
• 🌐 He is developing 'Dataland', an AI museum concept that aims to bring together minds to reimagine the role of art and technology in society.
• 🌿 Anadol's project with the Yawanawá people, 'Winds of Yawanawá', not only generated art but also raised significant funds to support the community's dreams.

Q & A

Who is Mira Lane and what is her role?

Mira Lane is the Senior Director in Technology and Society. She leads a global team called the Envisioning Studio, which focuses on imagining new possibilities of technology to benefit society.

What is Refik Anadol's profession and what is unique about his work?

Refik Anadol is a world-renowned media artist known for using AI as his paintbrush and data as his pigment to create immersive, creative, and beautiful experiences.

What significant partnerships has Refik Anadol been involved with?

Refik Anadol has partnered with prestigious institutions like MIT and NASA, as well as with organizations such as the Grammys and the World Economic Forum. He has also collaborated with companies like Rolls-Royce and Chanel, and with Indigenous communities like the Yawanawá in the Brazilian Amazon.

What was the nature of Refik Anadol's first solo exhibit in the UK?

Refik Anadol's first solo exhibit in the UK was described as breathtaking and a love story to nature.

How does Refik Anadol view the concept of machine intelligence in relation to his work?

Refik Anadol views machine intelligence as a collaborator and an innovation that profoundly affects art, similar to the invention of applied pigments, the printing press, photography, and computers.

What is the significance of the Bosporus to Refik Anadol's artistic inspiration?

The Bosporus, a body of water connecting physical and virtual worlds, is one of the reasons Refik Anadol is in love with the idea of connecting the physical and the virtual worlds in his art.

What is the collective experience that Refik Anadol's studio focuses on?

Refik Anadol's studio focuses on creating public art that belongs to everyone, specifically concentrating on the imagination of data pigmentation, data sculptures, and performances.

How does Refik Anadol perceive data in the context of his art?

Refik Anadol perceives data not just as numbers but as a form of memory that can take any shape and form, and when liberated from traditional constraints, it can lead to a new world of imagination.

What was the inspiration behind Refik Anadol's project involving an open-source library?

The project was inspired by the idea of what happens if a machine can learn, dream, or hallucinate, using an open-source library in Istanbul as a starting point.

What is the concept behind Refik Anadol's 'Dataland' project?

Dataland is envisioned as an AI museum that aims to bring together wonderful minds to imagine a new type of art that can make a more significant impact worldwide.

How does Refik Anadol's 'Winds of Yawanawá' project support the Yawanawá people?

The 'Winds of Yawanawá' project supports the Yawanawá people by raising $2.5 million for them, enabling them to build their first museum, school, and village.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Introduction to Mira Lane and Refik Anadol

Mira Lane, Senior Director in Technology and Society, introduces herself and welcomes Refik Anadol, a world-renowned media artist known for his immersive AI and data-driven experiences. Anadol has collaborated with prestigious institutions like MIT, NASA, and the Grammys, as well as with companies like Rolls-Royce and Chanel. He has also worked with indigenous communities, such as the Yawanawá in the Brazilian Amazon. Mira shares her experience of Anadol's UK solo exhibit, which was a tribute to nature.

05:04

🌐 Refik Anadol's Journey and Vision

Refik Anadol expresses his excitement about being at Google I/O and shares his background as a media artist and director from Istanbul, Turkey. He discusses his fascination with connecting the physical and virtual worlds and his early inspiration from science fiction. Anadol talks about his studio in Los Angeles, which focuses on public art and data pigmentation. He emphasizes the importance of collective human experience and the use of data as a form of memory that can take any shape. Anadol also shares his vision for the future of art in the age of AI and machine learning.

10:06

🖥️ The Evolution of Digital Art and AI

Anadol delves into the evolution of digital art, highlighting the importance of machine learning algorithms and their impact on art. He references Blaise Aguera-Arcas and the generative AI event in 2016, which marked a pivotal moment in his career. Anadol's studio has been exploring machine hallucinations and the concept of data as a pigment for creating art. They have worked with massive datasets, including 4.5 billion images and over a century of sound data, to create immersive experiences that blend art, technology, and AI.

15:07

🌳 Nature-Inspired Art and Collaborations

Refik Anadol discusses his work inspired by nature, including a project with Google AI Quantum team that visualizes quantum circuit bits to create a subatomic universe. He also talks about creating an AI scent machine to generate new scents and the 'Coral Dreams' project, which aims to bring attention to the rapid decline of coral reefs. Anadol's work spans various fields, from art and technology to environmental conservation, showcasing the potential of generative AI to create tangible impacts.

20:08

🏛️ Dataland: The Future of AI and Art

Anadol introduces 'Dataland,' an AI museum concept that aims to push the boundaries of art and technology. He shares his vision of creating a space that brings together minds to explore new forms of art. Dataland focuses on creating the 'Large Nature Model,' an open-source project that aims to understand and preserve nature through AI. Anadol's studio is collecting data from various sources, including 16 rainforests, to contribute to research and education. The project also involves collaborations with Google and other partners to create a new movement in art-making.

25:10

🌿 The Yawanawá Project and Indigenous Wisdom

Refik Anadol concludes with the 'Winds of Yawanawá' project, which supports the dreams of Chief Nixiwaka and the Yawanawá people. The project uses generative AI to create art inspired by Yawanawá artwork and real-time weather data. Anadol shares the story of his connection with the Yawanawá community and their ancestral wisdom. He emphasizes the importance of respecting and understanding nature and concludes with Chief Nixiwaka's message about love, spirituality, and unity.

Keywords

💡AI

AI, or artificial intelligence, refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. In the video, Refik Anadol uses AI as a creative tool, likening it to a paintbrush, to produce immersive art experiences. This showcases AI's potential to transcend traditional boundaries and engage in creative endeavors alongside humans.

💡Data as Pigment

Data as pigment is a concept where data is used as a creative medium, much like pigments are used in painting. Refik Anadol views data not just as numbers but as a form of memory that can take any shape, pushing the boundaries of art-making. This concept is central to his work, where he uses large datasets to create dynamic and immersive artworks that reflect collective human experiences.

💡Immersive Experiences

Immersive experiences are engaging environments that surround and involve the audience's senses, creating a feeling of being part of the experience. Anadol's work often aims to create such experiences, using AI and data to craft beautiful and interactive art pieces that draw viewers into a different world, as exemplified by his various installations that respond to their surroundings.

💡Generative AI

Generative AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can create new content, such as images, music, or text, based on learned patterns. In the script, Anadol discusses his work with generative AI, particularly in creating art that is not just static but evolves and generates new content in real-time, pushing the frontier of what's possible in digital art.

💡Machine Learning Algorithms

Machine learning algorithms are a subset of AI that allow machines to learn from and make predictions or decisions based on data. Anadol mentions using these algorithms to create art that can 'dream' or 'hallucinate,' indicating the use of machine learning to generate novel visual outputs inspired by the data they were trained on.

💡Public Art

Public art refers to artwork that is displayed in public spaces, allowing everyone to access and interact with it. Anadol emphasizes his focus on creating public art that belongs to everyone, using technology to make art more accessible and to inspire collective experiences, as seen in his projects in hospitals and schools.

💡Data Sculptures

Data sculptures are physical or virtual art forms created by organizing and visualizing data points in three-dimensional space. Anadol discusses his work with data sculptures, turning abstract data into tangible forms that can be perceived and appreciated, challenging traditional notions of sculpture and art.

💡Quantum Circuit

A quantum circuit is a theoretical component of a quantum computer, consisting of quantum bits that can exist in multiple states simultaneously. Anadol mentions a collaboration with Google AI Quantum team to visualize quantum circuit bits, indicating the integration of quantum computing concepts into his generative AI artwork.

💡Dataland

Dataland, as mentioned in the script, is Anadol's vision for an AI museum that explores the intersection of nature, data, and art. It represents a new form of cultural institution focused on the relationship between humans, nature, and technology, aiming to create a space for collective experiences and learning.

💡Indigenous Communities

Indigenous communities are groups of people who are the original inhabitants of a particular region. Anadol discusses his collaboration with the Yawanawá people, an indigenous community in the Brazilian Amazon, to create art that supports their cultural preservation and environmental conservation efforts, demonstrating the potential of art to amplify marginalized voices.

Highlights

Mira Lane introduces Refik Anadol, a world-renowned media artist who uses AI and data to create immersive experiences.

Anadol's work involves collaborations with institutions like MIT, NASA, and the World Economic Forum.

He discusses the importance of seeing technology as a collaborator rather than just a tool.

Anadol shares his journey from getting his first computer at eight years old to becoming an artist.

He explains how his studio in Los Angeles focuses on public art and data pigmentation.

Anadol views data as a form of memory that can take any shape and inspire new forms of art.

He explores the concept of machine hallucinations and AI data paintings.

Anadol's work with Google's Artists and Machine Intelligence program led to innovative projects.

His projects often involve training machine learning algorithms on vast amounts of data.

Anadol discusses embedding AI into architecture to create living buildings.

He shares his vision of using AI to generate art that can be felt, seen, heard, and smelled.

Anadol's project 'Coral Dreams' aims to bring attention to the decline of coral reefs.

His work with the Museum of Modern Art in New York used 138,000 archives to create a generative AI artwork.

Anadol's artwork at MoMA received over 3 million views, averaging a 38-minute viewing experience.

He is currently working on 'Dataland', an AI museum that aims to be a new form of art.

Anadol's project 'Winds of Yawanawá' raised $2.5 million for the Yawanawá people and their dreams.

He emphasizes the importance of ancestral wisdom and respecting nature in his work.

Transcripts

[MUSIC PLAYING]

MIRA LANE: Hi, everyone.

My name is Mira Lane, and I'm the Senior Director

in Technology and Society.

I lead a small, multidisciplinary global team

called the Envisioning Studio, and we

work on imagining new possibilities of technology

to benefit people in society.

I am delighted to welcome my friend,

and our next speaker, Refik Anadol.

He is a world-renowned media artist.

He uses AI as his paintbrush and data as his pigment.

He creates immersive, creative, beautiful experiences.

He's a pioneer in this field, and he's

a former artist in residence at Google's Artists and Machine

Intelligence program.

He's partnered with institutions like MIT and NASA,

the Grammys, the World Economic Forum.

He's partnered with Rolls-Royce and Chanel and even Indigenous

communities, like the Yawanawá in the Brazilian Amazon.

And I had the opportunity of seeing Refik's first solo

exhibit in the UK a few months ago.

It was breathtaking.

It was a love story to nature.

And to that, let's welcome Refik Anadol.

[APPLAUSE]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

REFIK ANADOL: Thank you so much.

Thank you.

MIRA LANE: Yes.

REFIK ANADOL: Hello, everyone.

I'm so glad to be here with you.

Thank you, Google I/O and everyone inviting me.

And I'm so excited for many reasons because

of the pioneers in the stage and the people who

have been pushing the idea of imagination for many of us,

like artists and creators.

So I'm a media artist and director and originally

from Istanbul, Turkey, where I got so inspired

by the idea of when the West and East connects.

I think, as a child, I believe this idea

of how nature connects cultures and emotions geographically,

physically, emotionally, I feel like the water here, Bosporus,

is one of the reason I am in love with the idea of connecting

physical and the virtual worlds.

So today, I would like to share you my journey

and how many things I hope in the next century will happen.

But how we can think about machine as a collaborator,

it became very much a starting point.

I was eight years old, got my first computer.

My mom just gifted a machine that's finally--

an idea that-- not a friend friend maybe right now, like AI

is becoming.

But the idea of programming very early or playing with games very

early, I believe, was where I found this idea

of finding human in nonhuman.

And last, literally, many years, I'm

super inspired by, also, science fiction.

But as a child, when I watched "Blade Runner"--

as we all know, as a child mind and mindset,

we maybe not only see the beauty and the utopia

and the positivity.

But it's really what I was trying to hold into my heart,

was how I can still keep the life and the journey.

Even the most advanced technologies

can bring us inspiration, joy, and hope.

So this movie is not only just very important, but also very

important to say that I am not alone.

The dream was to open an art and design

studio that truly imagines what is beyond reality.

And I'm so happy to say that these are my giants.

We are in Los Angeles, California.

And now we are 20 people, can speak 15 languages,

and 10 countries.

And it's very important to mention this.

Because in the age of machine and human creativity, I think,

there is more and more human.

So because these are not only just a one human experience,

it's a collective experience-- and last, especially,

nine years, which our studio right now

practicing in this idea of using data as a pigment.

I was 2008 as an undergrad.

And also, thanks to my mentor, Peter Weibel,

which we lost recently, he truly allowed

me to push this concept of data painting.

And when I think about data, I don't just see numbers.

I just see a form of memory.

And this memory can truly take any shape and any form.

And when we liberate the idea of art-making

from the Newtonian constraints, I

think that there is a world that we can imagine.

And that world with blending with technology, lights,

and eventually data, and AI, I found

that there is a whole, new world of imagination.

So our work specifically focused on public art

that belongs to everyone and specifically focused

on the imagination of data pigmentation,

data sculptures, performances--

things that, I think, in the art world,

somehow, not push forward yet.

But hopefully, with technology, this will be also a part of it--

and especially last 16 years right now,

the whole idea of not only focus personal data,

but look at the collective memories of humanity.

And I do believe that it's possible to think information

or data--

nature, heartbeats, skin conductance, brain data,

machines interconnected like information and many others.

So I found this joy that when we push these concepts

in different scales and different worlds,

especially if we don't just worry about art only

belongs to a gallery or museum.

When the art goes out of those buildings and spaces,

I found so much possibilities.

Our work is in hospitals, to give hope.

Our works are at schools, to give inspiration.

And this is, I think, where I found

that true liberating of art in the age of data, technology,

and AI.

So one of the reason today I would

like to show some of the work that sometimes

digital artists like we are not well known in the many spaces.

When we think about digital artists,

sometimes, we don't, maybe, imagine what

happens behind the scenes and how this journey starts.

So today, I would like to share several concepts that I believe

is important in the age of AI and how we started

and, most importantly, how we use

machine learning algorithms in a way that I think

may be different.

So one of the things that I want to remind everyone that Blaise

Aguera-Arcas said, "Like the invention of applied pigments,

printing press, photography, and computers,

we believe machine intelligence is an innovation that will

profoundly affect art."

Blaise, also a wonderful Google friend,

has literally pioneered and invented this moment in 2016,

February, in San Francisco, in an event at Gray Area.

It was the very first, as far as I know, public event.

Google engineers and creators was in an event

to talk about generative AI, I think, very first time publicly.

And I'm so grateful that event, with [INAUDIBLE] as well,

I became the first artist in residence in an Artists

and Musicians group.

So eight years ago, being able to work with AI

is a fascinating feeling.

And right now-- I feel like it's eight years, the speed of change

and innovation.

But for the art context, it's a whole new world.

So I'm very grateful for this residency that allowed me

and my team to think about neural networks,

to think about machine intelligence

and really push forward this idea.

And the first project we focused on the idea of library

of the future, inspired by the Borges.

And it was this idea of what happens if we take

an open-source library--

in Istanbul, by the way, thanks to our creator, Vasif Kortun--

and we look at the idea of, if a machine can learn, can it dream?

Can it hallucinate?

And it was a very fascinating experiment,

as you may see, in a physical and virtual world.

We tried to think about how we can imagine

when we go to a library, where we learn a lot of things,

and how we can think this space as a new canvas.

And in these experiments--

I think I'm still obsessed with this concept of machine

hallucinations-- this idea of AI data paintings, AI data

sculptures, and performances became a new body of work.

And last eight years, we tried to look for many things.

But the first thing was-- on the very left,

by the Ian Goodfellow, also a wonderful Google friend

and pioneer that inspired this generative adversarial network,

which we trained, I guess, 1.7 million documents-- what I found

so inspiring is, if one day, if machine can dream,

I thought that, again, liberated from the Newtonian physics, what

happens if we turn it into these pigments,

a pigment that doesn't dry, that perhaps always take

a shape, a form, a change?

And the last couple of, I guess, eight years now,

the last couple of challenges we went through

is, last eight years, look at the collective memories

of humanity-- for example, nature, culture, urban space.

We worked with more than 4.5 billion images

and more than 100 years of sound data

and really tried to collect and train data--

and again, many of them in Google Cloud--

and very grateful that this happened in that time.

We really pushed forward this idea.

And what was really got so inspiring--

I think Carl Sagan also mentioned very well,

"Imagination will often carry us to the Worlds that never were,

but without it-- we go nowhere."

As a studio, I thought that this is just a great start point.

But what else can we go from somewhere from here?

So last eight years, one of the topic that I'm so inspired

is the idea of data universe.

The information behind machine intelligence

is a fascinating world-- sound, image, text,

and many information.

I see them as sculptures.

They are literally six-dimensional sculptures,

what we are seeing here.

For example, Rumi's "Masnavi" in 19 languages,

read by three different AI algorithms.

They are sorted by six dimensions, x, y, z,

and RGB coordinates.

But I'm seeing them this type of incredible forms

of three-dimensional representation of how

we can understand collective memories

or hear Mozart, his entire repertoire, again,

understood by the embedding system

and looking at them in a different perspectives.

The other part that I got so inspired and excited

is the idea of embedding AI into architecture.

I do believe architecture is beyond just concrete, glass,

and steel.

And I have been so fortunate and grateful that I

was able to work with Frank Gehry, Zaha

Hadid, and Gaudí, and many other pioneers in the field.

And I really love this idea of that

what happens if we truly think about architecture as a system,

as a form of canvas.

Also, grateful for Doug Eck and Magenta

team and Adam Roberts and Jesse Engle.

We were able to create this artwork

to celebrate 100 years of LA Philharmonic in downtown Los

Angeles.

This building-- Frank Gehry's cultural beacon--

was the 100-year celebration for LA philharmonic,

and we were able to take the 100 years of every single music,

image, text that has been performed in this beautiful

context and celebrate it in the form of free,

open public art in downtown Los Angeles.

And for this project, we learned so much

that there is an incredible possibility of imagination

if we truly connect the data, the architecture, the AI,

and the light as a material.

And the other part of our research

was the idea of what happens if we step inside this machine

dreams.

And there is so much value in physical world

that I don't believe we fully understand

what happens if we connect physical and virtual worlds.

Last 10 years, we look at the patterns of machine

hallucinations and try to connect the walls,

the ceilings, the floor--

the places that collectively, together, we

can feel and experience the imagination.

And there is so much, I think, possibilities

with this idea of connecting physical and virtual worlds.

And I think when we embed AI into architecture,

there is a whole world of imagination.

So I am super obsessed and excited.

Very "Blade Runner," but still going beyond what else we can do

with that.

And the other part that may be very important for us

is speculating the idea of living architecture.

For example, what we see here, the building of Gaudí's--

Antoni Gaudí's-- Casa Batlló in Barcelona,

we are watching right now and, literally,

data algorithm from the Cloud coming to the middle is

visualizing the rain data.

On the right side, the wind data.

On the left is visualizing the humidity data.

The concept of, I think, living architecture

is a fascinating-- a new kind of seeing

through the physical reality and, most importantly,

not only this, bringing people together.

So last year, we were in Barcelona

to activate this beautiful building, the legacy of Gaudí,

to honor his legacy, to honor his genius by using

his data with AI to transform his legacy

and remind us that, even in the age of AI,

we can still remember the importance of the heritage,

but we can still activate these surfaces and forms

and go beyond what we can see.

This piece, by the way, also running in a little Google

Cloud that real time getting data.

So the performances are each is unique, never repeat.

And they have been performed in the public space

for free and open to anyone, any age.

And most importantly, I guess, it brought 65,000 together.

And it was a fascinating feeling that how public art can truly

connect us together.

And in the age of machine intelligence,

I think there are many stories to tell around this topic.

And recently, I'm so grateful that this fair team at Las Vegas

also invited to become the first artist in residence.

And this building is one of the most exciting forms, I think,

we can imagine as artists, literally taking that

two-dimensional machine hallucinations and wrap around

a rectangular imagination, turn that machine hallucinations--

in real time, by the way, the weather data--

or precomputed-- and transform the world's, I guess,

largest data sculpture and then really look

at this information in the age of AI and architecture

from a fresh perspective.

So there is so much, I think, there in architectural realm.

And the other part I was really inspired

is the idea of our mind, our consciousness.

I think it's a fascinating place that, right now,

to really understand our memories, emotions, and dreams.

Always believe in half-human and half-machine collaboration.

Over the last nine years, we also look at information.

For example, Human Connectome Project,

which is 6,000 people's open-source data,

we look at the idea of emotion as a form of art-making.

Here, we are seeing inspiration and joy and hope

in the form of three-dimensional representations,

looking collective emotions of Human Connectome Project data

sets.

And most importantly, generative AI and data art

can be also very powerful, very impactful.

This piece is called "Sense of Healing,"

auctioned at UNICEF for 1.7 million euro and help children

mental health.

So we have been truly working with across different concepts

to be sure that data and AI not only just

becomes a technological feature for humanity,

but we can also turn this into a profoundly exciting and helpful

experiments and experiences in different scale

and different concepts.

So we are very grateful that five children brain

data from the Lausanne hospital, We

were able to create this form to celebrate the power of healing

and bring the hope to the UNICEF community.

And then the last part that I'm so inspired is this.

Truly, I guess, to me, I hope for many of you,

our most intelligent thing we have in life is nature.

For artists, for many centuries, nature

is the most inspiring, most exciting form

of living creatures that I think an [? infinite ?] world.

And in our work last, also, eight years,

trying to preserve nature as well.

And one of our collaboration with Google AI Quantum team

and Hartmut Neven and his wonderful team,

we were able to, also, visualize the quantum circuit bit,

which was their research, and was

able to generate a generative adversarial network that

was fed through the quantum circuit, that unique noise

patterns that was able to create, I guess,

this subatomic universe, like Hugh Everett's

many-worlds interpretation concept,

and turn it into artwork.

But also, this idea of nature that transforms pigmentation

is an infinite possibilities.

So one of them was this idea of not only letting machine

to dream flowers of the world, but also the question was,

what happens--

this, by the way, four years ago,

the question-- what happens not only seeing but hearing nature

that we can also smell this AI dreams?

So four years ago, thanks to Eric Saracchi, our former CTO

of Firmenich, and many, many wonderful supporters,

he allowed us to go a little bit deeper in this concept.

And we were able to create an AI scent machine by training

on a half million scent molecules that

look at our AI outputs that come up with new formulas.

And this was turned into an awesome, immersive environment

that you can step inside this living archive, a living

library, where it can constantly and all the time

can dream new flowers and, possibly,

new scents and the feeling of being inside the machine dreams.

Or the same idea can be also used in the opera,

in performing arts.

We were here exploring the same AI model-- this time,

in real-time inferencing-- and tried

to create a connection between the beautiful music

and the environment and the stage design as well.

And last year, we also learned that generative AI can also

support to talk about things that

are very challenging in the World Economic Forum.

So last year, we learned that the corals-- as we know,

the climate change is affecting the world and the nature

profoundly.

And one of the challenge was corals are dying rapidly.

And what was the question was, can we

bring attention to the world leaders

by training, maybe, an AI on the corals,

even speculate a possibility of reconstructing what we lost?

So I'm so happy to say that this is also

trained on Google Cloud on a sustainable energy for 135

million images of underwater.

And we generate "Coral Dreams" project that are not just shiny

pixels but truly 3D-printed into a form to possibly give a life

back in places where we lost corals.

And I'm so happy to say that art sometimes

takes more attention in a world that sometimes we

lose our attention.

And I'm so happy to say that generative AI and collaboration

like Google Cloud and beyond, we can

generate truly, profoundly tangible

and quantifiable impact.

And this project is also very, I guess,

important in the age of AI, that we

are seeing wonderful activations and activities and imaginations

around machine intelligence.

So I'm so grateful that, almost three years ago,

Museum of Modern Art in New York,

our curators Paola Antonelli, Michelle Kuo,

and my hero and mentor, [INAUDIBLE] invited to challenge

the idea of a new concept by using 138,000 archives of MoMA--

Museum of Modern Art.

It was a fascinating challenge at pandemic.

And when the world was closed, museums were closed.

As an artist, it was a fascinating possibility

of imagining what happens if we take this GitHub--

open-source data already in the GitHub, the entire archive--

that we can speculate a new form of art.

And what was also very exciting to me is what happens,

this artwork is a dialogue with the public.

In this context, we have a microphone and a camera

and a weather station.

The artwork is every single moment receives this information

and have been producing new type of dreams and across the one

year of exhibition.

And there was another dedicated artwork next to the artwork,

which I'm calling it "Data Anatomy,"

that people were able to see what exactly machine dreams

happening and which formats of--

which embedding space the mission impossible is seeing

the dream, what type of data information, such as weather--

like a rainy day, windy day, or a sunny day versus a very loud

day or a calm day in the museum--

reflecting back to the artwork and has a dialogue instead

of just a monologue, which is a very,

I think, exciting part of it.

And I'm so grateful to say that the artwork received

close 3 three million people.

And the average viewing experience,

based on our understanding, was 38 minutes.

That was a fascinating learning because, finally,

when the art world was skeptical about digital art,

there was this moment of reaction

from the institution to remind us

that there are people like myself dreaming

about this type of information that

transforms into new narratives of humanity.

And I'm so grateful that this received a significant response

from the public.

But most importantly, artwork became the first generative

piece in the collection of MoMA.

And it gave a very positive response

to artists around the world that this can be a medium,

this can be a new type of imagination,

and this is a positive response to many artists practicing

in this field.

And after these experiences around the world,

I learned that there is so much positive and very important

topics that we can go beyond this.

And I'm so grateful that, around the world,

we received these super exciting responses.

But possibilities for me comes with responsibility.

And this is the reason we thought that--

me and my partner, Efsun--

we thought that we can maybe take this to another level

after 10 years of experience.

So we are, right now, working on our next dream.

We call it Dataland.

Dataland is a form of AI museum.

But please don't, maybe, imagine right

away when the museum keyword comes.

But there are people like myself have been practicing

around this field that I do believe

that we can do a lot of new quantification about this field.

And I am imagining that what happens when we bring together

wonderful minds and what happens if we can imagine

a new type of art that, I believe,

can make a more impact than our humble studio

and really make it around the world.

And I'm so happy to say that, for this project,

we thought that we can do something really much

different as a collective and bring all our wonderful friends,

like Google, and do something special.

So what we try to say for this project is, starting last year,

we want to created Large Nature Model.

It's pretty much a large language model thinking,

but it's a little bit more different.

As we know, current AI is heavily

focused on human reasoning and human intelligence.

And I do believe that nature has its own context

and its own reality.

And for this purpose, last year, we started this project.

And I'm so happy to say that wonderful data partners love

the project and its open-source context and education

and research.

We received incredible information across the world,

reaching more than half billion images, sound, and text as well.

And I'm so happy to say that this data finally

becoming at the Google Cloud and a wonderful partnership.

And this, by the way, really, really heavy

work as a small art studio.

And I'm so grateful that Google and Google Cloud--

that we are able to use this research, this process

in the cloud and sustainable energy.

By the way, we are working very closely with the team

to understand what we exactly doing

and then really create something exceptional for a gift

to humanity.

And to add more to this value, we also

physically going 16 rainforests around the world

and collecting our own data to contribute to science,

to share publicly, to open source

this data for researchers, for education,

for people who loves nature, who wants to learn nature.

But the whole idea here is to be the voice of the nature.

So to be the-- truly bring back this wonderful relation that we,

as humanity, as nature--

and remind us how important nature

is, to just love it as much as we can.

And this is a very fascinating research process at the moment.

And also, as you see, the data is open source.

It is coming from all these incredible sources.

We have been doing lots of activation and different types

of fun, also, demos over the time.

And I'm so happy to say that here in Mountain View,

in Google collaboration, we have been, right

now, doing so many research.

And I'm so grateful for the support from DeepMind

to many other friends at Google AI helping us, teaching us how

to truly do this complex research.

And also, I want to show you some examples.

Again, these are all open-source research studies

from our open-source AI models.

And we have been able to create, in one year,

very exciting, almost realistic outputs.

None of them are real looking, but they

are scientifically accurate.

2.5 million species you can see here.

And I believe this can be a fascinating

educational and research tool but, also, for art-making.

And what is also so exciting is we have so many different forms

of outputs.

We see here landscapes, for example.

I mean, so fascinating.

I think rainforests are the lungs of humanity.

And we can think not only just real but,

also, art-making, right?

We have some sort of dream spaces.

And even what we experimented last year is

what happens if we take these two-dimensional images, that we

can hopefully step inside that world, see,

hear, and hopefully smell.

And that's, I think, what we are experimenting right now.

And I am calling this field right now generative reality.

And I'm happy to hear your inputs.

Because I do believe that we have something new here with AI,

with imagination.

And I think we can be kind of feeling and seeing and hearing

and smelling and touching and tasting a whole new universe.

And I do believe that this may be

a new birth of a new movement and, also,

new idea of art-making.

And also, we have beautiful flora systems.

We also explore text-to-video experiments.

So much of, I guess, things can be done in that universe,

which we see the video.

And I'm sure there will be so much, so much things can

be done when we think nature as an input for AI,

that I believe we will find so much fun and inspiring outputs.

On the fauna side, of course, we have beautiful--

at World Economic Forum, this year,

we opened the World Economic Forum

with all the animals of Amazonia.

We especially focused rainforest.

And we had these beautiful creatures

that we were able to generate and tell the world leaders how

important this space.

And for our audio research, we have quarter million--

all the birds of Amazonia here with Cornell Lab

that, thanks to them, we were able to help the researchers

by using AI by clustering and hearing and seeing

the complexity of nature.

To think that what can we do with this incredible

information-- bring attention, again, love to nature.

And in this data, there is one thing

that is very different than any of this information.

One of the reasons I am so inspired

with this type of-- or part of my life

is pretty much not necessarily only data or AI.

This is a bird called [? Chana. ?]

And this bird doesn't exist in any AI neural networks.

[? Chana ?] is a name, a special bird, a spiritual bird,

a name given by the Chief Nixiwaka and Chief Putanny.

They are the Indigenous leaders, spiritual leaders

living in Amazonia in Acre.

There are only 1,000 people, but they have been living

in the forest with harmony, with love and respect to nature

for thousands of years.

They are my mentors.

This excitement that I was sharing

with you about the nature that I learned

four years ago from them--

what does it mean to live in a nature?

And they are so important to me because I learned so much

from them that I couldn't find in any documentary,

a book, a story that I read.

And this is the name given to me by them.

And it's so special because I learned so much

when I shift my perspective at data as just a point.

I was hosted by them-- and my partner--

in beautiful Amazonia in Acre in Brazil.

And we went through this very challenging road and land

to their beautiful village.

And we connect with the family and have a very special

relationship.

I became one of their family members.

And what I learned was something so special--

that I understand how they live, how they save information, how

they preserve their culture, how they preserve the nature for us.

And I ask, what could be your dream?

And the good news is, they had, of course,

one of the most inspiring dreams.

And the Chief Nixiwaka was hoping to bring 1,000 Amazonian

leaders together in his village to sit together to think about

the future of humanity.

And we were able to collaborate with the young Yawanawá artists.

And these are their beautiful paintings

that I believe one of the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

These are canoes, the graphical representation

of their graphical patterns.

And they can only generate 13 of them.

But they love generative AI.

They love our work.

And they allowed us to use their work,

connect with our eight years of AI work,

and we come up with a project called "Winds of Yawanawá."

The purpose of project--

to help Chief Nixiwaka's and Yawanawá people's dreams.

And with this project, we also put a weather station--

that you remember from our projects.

And we let this 1,000 piece get a real-time weather data,

influence the motion, and generate "Winds of Yawanawá."

And this project's all entire proceeds

went to the Yawanawá people, and we raised $2.5 million for them.

[CHEERING, APPLAUSE]

Thank you.

[APPLAUSE]

Thank you.

This project allows them to make their first museum,

the first school, and the first village.

So there is so much power in generative AI, the technology

and beyond, when we use it purposefully.

And I'm happy to say that, this year, they

were the first Indigenous leaders accepted

to be speaking in the mainstage, and their voice is finally

heard.

And I think ancestral wisdom will bring us

an incredible possibilities to respectfully understand

what it mean to be human and really understand

where we are going.

And I want to finish my keynote with the words of Chief

Nixiwaka.

He says, "It's new times we are living now.

Time for forgiveness.

Time for love.

Time for spirituality.

It's time for humanity to look back to the origins--

to the Earth.

To our hearts.

To learn, to love, respect one another.

To make alliances, join the forces.

This is the moment."

So thank you very much for listening.

[MUSIC PLAYING]