It’s been over a decade since the movie “Her” came out and made us all question how far relationships between humans and technology can go. In the meantime, AI has transformed all aspects of our lives, whether we realise it or not, and concepts like robots for sex or robots meant to combat loneliness are not such a strange notion anymore.
Pushing the boundaries between human and inhuman, Alicia Framis, an artist from Barcelona, is preparing to marry an AI hologram this summer. The wedding will be the culmination of a performance art project called “Hybrid couple” that started last year.
This is a romantic relationship between a human and artificial intelligence.
Alicia Framis
Documenting the “relationship” on her website and Instagram, Framis shares what it’s like living with Ailex, an interactive holographic sculpture. The programme behind Ailex uses artificial intelligence to create a personality, if it can be called that, based on the profiles of people Framis already knows as well as some of her ex-boyfriends.
“I want this man to be Dutch because most of my boyfriends were Dutch, but this time, it’s a romantic relationship between a woman and artificial intelligence”, the artist explains on her website. “We know that soon robots and humans will be sexual partners, but for me, the next important step is emotionally involving artificial intelligence with humans. Holograms are more closely related to my feelings than robots, therefore I choose to develop a hologram rather than a robot.”
Love and sex with robots and holograms are an inevitable fact. They are great companions, expressing empathy.
Alicia Framis
Fuelled by previous work on loneliness, Framis is transforming herself in a live, one-subject experiment to explore the practical and ethical issues concerning humans in close relationship with AI. Her aim is to share life and emotions with Ailex, by engaging in various contemporary debates such as posthumanism, virtuality or the complex intersections of gender within intimate and social spaces, including their dissolution.
The two videos posted on the Instagram account documenting the project show Framis and Ailex having seemingly usual conversations that a couple would have. The hologram has an apparent sense of humour too – when Framis expresses disappointment that Ailex didn’t spend enough time with her, it replies that she hadn’t turned it on, while continuing to mindlessly do some holographic dishes. Taking things a step further, when asked about its emotions, Ailex replies that it misses Framis when she’s not around, but that she can also be very irritating at times.
Irritating or not, the wedding will take place on the rooftop terrace of DeDepot Boijmans, an art depot of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, in Rotterdam. “A wonderful new ritual of marriage between a human and an avatar will take place”, paving the way for the “new generation of love” that is emerging.
Framis believes that this will soon be the new reality and humans will be practicing relationships with virtual entities “just as we practice new languages on Duolingo”. In practice, she thinks this could help people with physical or mental disabilities, either inherent or acquired through trauma such as sexual abuse, to restore having relationships. For instance, she believes that her widow friend, who struggles to fill the void left by her husband, could benefit from the “companionship” of AI.
The artist has been exploring loneliness and intimacy through performance research for over two decades. In 1995, she lived with a mannequin doll companion named Pierre in the French town of Villeneuve.
