Kriti PatelTLDR: The Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake City has unveiled a new immersive exhibit called “Into the Mind of Artificial Intelligence” that envisions a symbiotic relationship between humans and AI. The exhibit aims to educate visitors on AI and how it is transforming human lives and work. The exhibit includes a 40-minute projector light show and interactive exhibits that allow visitors to learn about the history of AI and experiment with AI technology. The creators of the exhibit believe that AI can be utilized for the benefit of humanity, and that democratizing AI technology and access is important for ethical advancement. The exhibit emphasizes the idea that technology should aid humanity rather than replace it. The Leonardo hopes that the exhibit will bring knowledge about AI to the masses and inspire people to get involved in the development of the technology.
Artificial intelligence has inarguably become a hot-button topic in the past year with many having their reservations about fully embracing the rapidly growing technology for fear that it may make humans less relevant. In contrast, the newest interactive exhibit at The Leonardo, “Into the Mind of Artificial Intelligence,” envisions how mankind and AI could instead form a symbiotic relationship that would lead to a Utopian society.
The Leonardo describes the “Into the Mind of Artificial Intelligence” exhibit as an immersive education experience meant to imbue visitors with a working understanding of what AI is and how it is actively transforming how humans live and work. While popular media and valid superstitions cause some to be weary of the rapidly growing capabilities of AI, The Leonardo’s newest exhibit aims to show visitors how humanity could flourish through the help of rapidly evolving AI technology.
“A year ago, I probably would’ve said it scares me to death,” said Justin Anderson, The Leonardo’s director of marketing and events, reflecting on how working on the exhibit has altered the way he views AI technology. “But, as I’ve helped in the development of this exhibit and experimented with some of the tools myself, the possibilities are really striking — I think it’s amazing to see what AI could do and how it can help democratize technology and access to some of these concepts across the board.”
Democratizing AI technology and access is a driving theme for the “Into the Mind of Artificial Intelligence” exhibit — the creators of the exhibit believe that we can utilize AI technology for our benefit rather than our demise. The immersive exhibit consists of an abstract yet informative 40-minute projector light show and an educational component at the latter half of the exhibit where visitors can peruse exhibits that highlight the history of AI technology and get the chance to experiment with AI through interactive exhibits.
“AI is emerging as one of the most transformative technologies of our time,” said Manish Parashar, a celebrated expert in the field and presidential professor at the Kalhert School of Computing at the University of Utah, speaking at the opening of the brand-new exhibit Friday morning about how important it is that we democratize the development of AI technology so that humanity can keep ethical and moral boundaries in place while working to further advance the already rapidly advancing technology.
The exhibit’s immersive light show treats visitors to a crash course of what AI technology is capable of, taking the narrative structure of following a single AI from its initial creation to how it ends up helping humanity build a Utopian society — while illustrating how the AI progressively grows in its sophistication and its capabilities through the effective mass-intake of any and all information it has access to.
The Leonardo is hopeful that the new exhibit serves to bring knowledge about the rapidly expanding field of technology to the masses and demonstrate that, through involvement and interest, people can help ensure that the further development of AI technology ends up being a good thing for humanity rather than ending up being something they should fear.
“There is no grander topic on the mind of the public, and AI has the potential to shape and touch every single person’s life on the planet,” said Anderson, speaking about what excites him the most about the exhibit, which will be officially opened to the public Saturday. “To me, this is very provocative content and a great new exhibit that will hopefully generate some fun discussion and raise awareness so that we can approach this developing technology with the respect and ethical considerations it deserves.”
