With the subtle infiltration of AI into almost every aspect of our lives, the spectre of Dean Koontz’ Demon Seed (1973) going from the pages of a novel to becoming our reality, looms disturbingly large.
At the launch of his graphic novel Dream Machine (Westland) at Blossom Book House in Bengaluru, author and graphic artist, Appupen (George Mathen), discussed various facets of the book as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its inroads into our lives with Padmini Ray Murray, founder of Design Beku, a collective dealing with technology and design.
“I didn’t know much about AI at first. I studied it for five months before I began any work,” Appupen candidly admits. Appupen who has a background in advertising, co-authored Dream Machine with Laurent Daudet, a physics professor and co-founder of a new generation AI startup in France.
Dream Machine | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The seemingly unlikely collaboration between the two — a graphic artist and a CEO — finds itself in the pages of Dream Machine. The plotrevolves around the dilemma of the protagonist Hugo, whose AI tech which is soon to be bought by a digital conglomerate, could be misused on so many levels.
The chance to live forever via one’s work in AI seduces people into thinking it is for the greater good. Another character in Dream Machine, attempts to convince the protagonist to jump on the AI-money making band wagon because if he didn’t, “someone else eventually will.”
During the event, Appupen kept pointing out how the powers that be have introduced AI to the public as something fun to be enjoyed. However, their underlying agenda and the many uses it can be put to (both benign and malignant) are yet to be understood.
“AI makes your life more convenient, but I think the question to ask is ‘For whom and at what cost? How badly do we need that convenience?’ In the past year, we have become comfortable with AI — toying with tech stuff, such as images and cute avatars. There is a concerted effort to make AI friendly for everybody; a distraction because of which we are not going behind the scenes and seeing all that is possible with it,” he says.
Appupen | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Talking about the multi-various, un-thought of applications for AI, Appupen recalls how when a friend mentioned its use for manual scavenging, a scientist there admitted how it was something they had not considered.
“AI is totally focused on the profit end of things. While the popular narrative is to make it more friendly for us, the real stuff is happening underneath, fuelled by businesses and is rather disturbing,” he says, warning that deepfakes were just one of the many misuses of this tech.
“What do you think you do better than AI?” asked Padmini, to which Appupen said, “As a comic artist, I don’t see AI doing the type of work I do as it’s a mix of writing and drawing and how we visualise something. We’re always trying to be original in that mix and how we depict them.”
Going back to the premise of Dream Machine and the idea “AI only reproduces it doesn’t create,” Appupen talked about how AI is being trained to imitate certain trends. “If you ask it to write in English or in the style of Victor Hugo, it can do that quite well because it has been trained to. But, if you ask it to write like regional authors such as Zachariah or K Satchidanandan or other writers in Malayalam, it can’t. But it soon will be able to do that too.”
Laurent Daudet | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Appupen admits Dream Machine is quite a departure from his other work as this was a topic that would interest most people and not just readers of graphic novels. “I had to be more careful with language and as it was to be informative and educative, we had to keep it on track.”
Dream Machine breaks down the topic of AI as well as its implications, ethics and social impact for laymen, making it easier to understand. Humorous panels depicting the activities of SuperHugo pop up throughout to keep readers from being overwhelmed by the content.
Appupen adds Laurent was “the voice of reason and science” in the making of this novel while he focused on its characteristic of being a comic.
The latter part of the event took questions from the audience and Appupen was asked about the colour scheme in Dream Machine which sports an unusual palette, when compared to his usual work. “It was the tone of green that we discussed quite a bit. While the publishers had a shade of blue in mind, I didn’t want it to come across as a cold, corporate colour. I kept pushing yellow into the mix and that was how we ended with different shades of turquoise.”
AI’s learned or limited knowledge also came up with its real time mix up of the provinces of Punjab in India and Pakistan. The very real scenario of AI edging out art, creativity and livelihoods was also discussed.
A panel from Dream Machine | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A panel from Dream Machine | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
