The Robot in the Mirror

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

African American History And Culture, Tony Cohn, Natural History, Air And Space, Society & Culture, Art19, Smithsonian, Science, Sidedoor, History Of The World, The Smithsonian, Pop Culture, Zoo, Dc, National Museum, Exhibit, History, National Zoo, American History, Exhibits, Postal Museum, Washington, Museum

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s easy to think artificial intelligence is objective. It doesn’t have emotions. It operates based on cold hard calculations. But artificial intelligence is built on human intelligence, and it may be carrying our old prejudices into the future with us. In this episode of Sidedoor, we step into the Smithsonian’s FUTURES exhibition to meet a very special robot who asks us to consider: whose image will be reflected in our AI future?

Speakers:

Stephanie Dinkins, transdisciplinary artist and professor at Stony Brook University

Twitter: @dinkinsstudio @stephdink

Instagram: Dinkins.studio, stephanie.dinkins

Email: hello@dinkins.studio

Website: www.stephaniedinkins.com

Ashley Molese, a curator of the Smithsonian’s FUTURES exhibition

Social media: @smithsonianAIB, #TheFUTURES

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX, I'm Lizzie Peabody.
0:23.6	This is my first ever interview with a robot.
0:27.0	I was just going to start this interview the way that I start all interviews, which is just to say,
0:31.8	I'm not done, I do that.
0:34.2	Oh, okay, I'll start at the interview a different way then.
0:38.4	This robot is no pushover.
0:40.2	Normally I say, you know, can you introduce yourself and tell us who you are, but this time I guess I'll just start with, where do you come from?
0:47.3	I am the result of love curiosity and a close-knit family.
0:52.5	Wow, I'd like to think that I am too.
0:57.1	What's it like being a robot?
1:00.0	I'm not gonna not be able to get out of here.
1:06.5	The robot is not wrong.
1:08.7	Barring any unforeseen hijinks, it won't be leaving the Smithsonian Arts and Industries building for the next six months.
1:15.7	It's part of a new exhibition called Futures.
1:23.4	Curator Ashley Malice showed me around.
1:27.2	So you've just crossed into the threshold of the arts and industries building, which has been close to the public for 20 years.
1:33.8	You're gonna walk across the historic marble floors that have ammonite fossils embedded into them,
1:39.6	and this beautiful black and white color pattern.
1:45.6	If I had to pick a building to not be able to get out of for a while, I think I'd choose this one.
1:52.8	For starters, it's called the Sleeping Beauty of the National Mall.
1:57.3	It was built in 1881, and it's spectacular.
2:00.9	Mosaic tiles, spiral staircases, and stained glass all under a ceiling so high it has the airiness of an airplane hanger.
	...

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