A confusing AI art exhibition at the Science Gallery

There’s an exhibition about Artificial Intelligence next to London Bridge, but probably not the sort of exhibition you’re already thinking it might be.

It’s more a sort of show of works by artists with AI as the trigger to create the art. As such it’s a bit of a mix, with some of the artworks being interesting and others leaving you scratching your head in confusion.

There’s the opening item on the ground floor, an alien-shaped inflatable that moves around erratically, but when you move closer to it, it learns to hug you. Which could be lovely and snuggly, or how machines learn to deliver a death grip, I leave it to you to panic.

There’s a video showing an experiment on how cats react when playing, but instead of playing with humans, they’re playing with machines.

One of the better displays is a dark room filled with mounds of disconnected speakers all spluttering out their final gasps as they die, which can trigger odd feelings of sympathy for the machines in their dying pains.

The only art here that can be said to have been created by AI computers is a wall of portraits of people all generated by AI commands.

They’ve also been printed using lenticular panels, which means the image shifts and changes as you move around it. Probably not quite what the artist had in mind, but I took a lot of joy in catching the moments when the portraits could be seen in partial transition.

Rather like previous Science Gallery exhibitions, it’s a bit of science and a lot of art, and the art sort of sometimes works and often is just plain baffling.

It’s a free exhibition though, so visit and see which bits appeal to you.

The exhibition, AI: Who’s Looking After Me? is open at the Science Gallery London until 20 January 2024

It’s open Wednesday to Saturday from 11am to 6pm and is free to visit.

You can find the gallery just outside London Bridge station as you head to Guys Hospital.