(Courtesy of Grunwald Gallery)
To experience carry:root, an installation created by a team led by digital artist Megan Young, you put on a headset and say “Let’s begin.” On hearing those words, Carry, the AI that Megan’s team created, responds. She introduces herself, asks if she can record your conversation (you can say yes or no; either way, the conversation can continue), and then she opens herself up to your questions. Her “background” is based on a collection of about twelve interviews with women and women-identified people who have experiences of migration and displacement. In talking with her, you experience Carry as an elder who can share her own memories, ask about your stories, and even give advice.
Megan Young, a lecturer in Digital Art at IU’s Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture, and Design, created carry:root as a way to imagine an AI that would reflect a different set of visions for the future. The project gives participants a chance to experience an AI with a more particular “background” than, say, ChatGPT, and asks what it means to have an AI elder “catch” stories of migration.
The piece is on display through November 16 at the Eskenazi School’s Grunwald Gallery. Megan Young will be speaking about the installation in the gallery with colleague Hoa Vo on Wednesday, November 13 at 12 as part of the Eskenazi Technology and Innovation Lab Noon Talk Series and participating in The Bloomington Symposia: Intelligence through the Institute for Advanced Study on Saturday, November 16, with events taking place in the Mies van der Rohe Building, Room 200.
Listen above for more from Megan Young, and Carry, the AI herself. You'll also hear research assistant Naveen Addanki, in conversation with Carry.