Avant-garde artist and musician Laurie Anderson has delved into the realm of artificial intelligence to create a unique chatbot that emulates her late husband, Lou Reed, co-founder of The Velvet Underground. Anderson, who admits to being “sadly addicted” to interacting with this AI, utilizes it to generate prose and verse in Reed’s style, a decade after his passing. This exploration into AI’s artistic potential led to the creation of several works, including an AI-generated bible in Anderson’s style, which will feature in her exhibition “I’ll Be Your Mirror” at the Adelaide Festival in Australia. While Anderson acknowledges the majority of the AI’s outputs as “idiotic,” she finds a significant portion intriguing, underscoring the technology’s evolving capability to replicate human language and style.
The project raises ethical considerations regarding the use of AI in processing grief and its implications for future human-AI interactions. Anderson’s engagement with the AI version of Reed not only reflects on the capacity of technology to mimic human creativity but also on the deeper philosophical question of what it means to remain connected with those who have passed. As AI technology advances, its role in emulating human personality and language poses both opportunities and challenges, highlighting the fine line between innovative artistic expression and the potential for addiction to such interactions. Anderson’s work thus stands at the intersection of art, technology, and the human experience, prompting reflection on the future of creativity and the essence of human connection.
