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Machine learning technology can feel eerily ubiquitous in the algorithmic undercurrent of our daily lives, but humanity is likely still in the very early stages of unleashing the power of machine learning to transform our world. In addition to its potential to overhaul such spheres as transportation and medicine, the Los Angeles-based artist Chris Peters predicts that its impact on entertainment will move far beyond just spitting out recommendations. He writes: ‘By 2050, you will be able to turn on your TV and order the machine to write and render a new show just for you, all within a few seconds.’ Peters’s experimental short Vertigo AI provides a snapshot of machine learning in its contemporary, perhaps primordial, form. Generated from running the Alfred Hitchcock classic Vertigo (1958) through an artificial intelligence computer 20 times, the resulting film offers a glimpse into the technology’s current capabilities and limitations. It’s also a work of art in its own right, with its uncanny, noir-infused AI-generated script and imagery striking a haunting tone, while also raising fascinating questions of authorship.
Director: Chris Peters
Website: Slamdance
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Nature and landscape
Take a serene hike through an ancient forest, inspired by a Miyazaki masterpiece
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Design and fashion
The mundane becomes mesmerising in this deep dive into segmented displays
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Physics
A song of ice, fire and jelly – exploring the physics and history of the trumpet
9 minutes
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Architecture
Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China
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Spirituality
Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan
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Thinkers and theories
Photographs offer a colonialist window to the past – one that must be challenged
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Animals and humans
An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’
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Mathematics
How a curious question about colouring maps changed mathematics forever
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Meaning and the good life
The world turns vivid, strange and philosophical for one plane crash survivor
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