Model Machines

MA Material Futures x Google DeepMind | Lethaby Gallery, London April 2023

In 2023, my team at Google DeepMind sponsored a client project with MA Material Futures at Central Saint Martins. The brief was to design an AI-enabled device, service or machine to benefit humanity. Students were encouraged to be critical of AI, to apply ethical technology frameworks, and to place their work somewhere in the spectrum of applied technologies and speculative futures. DeepMind researchers, engineers and product managers ran workshops and offered technical support and advice on technical feasibility. The final artefacts were exhibited at the Lethaby Gallery in London.

The exhibition text:

‘Artificial Intelligence is disrupting the way we learn, consume, make decisions, do our jobs and interact with the world around us. As the technology progresses, we’re at a pivotal moment to ask what problems AI should be solving, who will benefit and how we can collaborate across disciplines and geographies to build a beneficiail future with AI.

For this collaborative project, DeepMind asked Material Futures students how they want to see AI designed, deployed and used to enable a more socially equitable and sustainable future.’