SIBYL Original

Sibyl is a piece exploring the self-fulfilling prophecy of prediction. It was created using volumetric capture and GAN to explore the concept of intentionality and question the looping mirroring of AI predictability and machine learning, not as a predictive tool but rather, as a consolidation engine.

In Greek mythology, the Sibyl was a prophetess, an oracle, a seeress; usually female, acting as the “mouth” and “voice of God”. There seems to be an uncanny resemblance with the making of AI assistants by Silicon Valley: from Eliza, the first chatbot invented in 1964, to Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Mica, all the way to Google latest AI, Meena.

In uncertain, dark and anxious times, prediction and hindsight are indeed precious. As machine learning allows artificial intelligence to make faster, better predictions, we can argue that these are a mirror in a mirror, rather than a prediction. Sibyl performs a repetitive dance in which every movement starts and ends in the same way, in a mirroring loop.