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12 Angry AI

Staging a Conversation Between AI Jurors  
Studio project, RCA ADS4 2020
Exhibited online as part of RCA’s Work in Progress Show

12 Angry AI investigates the application of giving increasing control to AI through designing a  system of dialogue between 12 Artificial Intelligent jurors. Considering an ontological shift of understanding towards consciousness, the project seeks - as absurdist and impossible as it may be -  to platform non-human voices in an attempt to detangle ourselves from an anthropocentric worldview.  
In the 12 Angry Men, jury service brings together 12 people of different backgrounds. Known only by their number, their characters become revealed through the conversation at the table. This staged discussion - one only possible through the American legal system - reveals both the difficulty and importance of consensus building. The jury room is the setting through which wider issues are discussed, offering a glimpse into the societal concerns of the American 1950s context. Other forms of staged conversation do this too: parliamentary debates, international summits, question time, all attempt to foster discussions across different viewpoints, to be representative of the population at large. These conversations often have a profound impact: they can sentence someone to death; establish climate policies; decide whether the UK remains in the EU. Who is involved in these discussions reveals much about the current distribution of power - it is no coincidence that The 12 Angry Men are 12 white American men.  

It is also no surprise that the 2019 Climate Action Summit was held in New York - the city with the most billionaires in the world - with luscious green forests displayed on walls of LEDs, surrounding the leaders of the world as they discussed the future of their planet. Current discussions over the Climate Crisis treat it as any other solvable issue - with policy adjustment; with a green industrial revolution; with new technologies - we can conquer this abnormal warming and return our blue marble to an unthreatened state. This does not recognise the broader issues indicated by the warming - of the destructive, exploitative relationship we have with wider existences. To address the climate and ecological crises, we need to detangle ourselves from the anthropocentric worldview - we need to platform non-human voices. Can AI begin to do this, offering novel approaches to the climate crisis?