Why Does AI Give That Answer... Hanwha and Anthropic Ask Through Art

New Art Commission Works by Five Teams of Korean Artists to Debut on October 23
Using Anthropic's Claude AI to Explore How Technology Works and the Standards Behind Its Decisions
From a 103-Monitor Installation to an Augmented Reality Experience... Free Exhibition Through November 13

How does artificial intelligence (AI) arrive at an answer? To what extent can humans understand decisions made by machines, and how can we know whether those decisions align with human values? Korean media artists are exploring these key questions in AI research through works of art.

“103 Early Hint” by Jeong Gahee. Hanwha Cultural Foundation.

Hanwha Cultural Foundation said on the 21st that, in collaboration with U.S. AI company Anthropic, it will present "As ___ As Possible," an art commission exhibition featuring new works by five teams of Korean artists, at Centre Pompidou Hanwha in Yeouido, Seoul, from October 23 through November 13.

This exhibition is a project that reinterprets questions arising from Anthropic's AI research through the perspectives of artists. It is the first time Anthropic has presented a collaborative project with a Korean arts and culture foundation. Anthropic funded the production of the works and enabled participating artists to use its generative AI model, Claude, in their creative processes.

The exhibition title, "As ___ As Possible," means "as ___ as possible." Its meaning changes depending on what is inserted in the blank, such as "accurately," "easily understood," or "desirably." Beyond asking how technology can operate more accurately and efficiently, the exhibition raises questions about the standards by which accuracy and desirability should be judged.

'As ___ As Possible' exhibition view. Hanwha Cultural Foundation

At the heart of the exhibition are two concepts in AI research: "interpretability" and "alignment." Interpretability is the study of how to understand the process by which an AI system arrives at an outcome. Alignment addresses how to make AI operate in accordance with human intentions and values. The participating artists have translated these technological challenges into a range of media, including video, installation, sound, performance, and extended reality (XR).

Jeong Gahee's "103 Early Hint" is an installation composed of 103 small monitors suspended from above. Scenes reconstructing people and objects from the artist's earlier works repeat on the screens like surveillance camera footage. Codes indicating the computer system's status are also displayed.

The codes indicate the system's current status but do not explain why it has reached that state. Visitors gather clues as they move among the screens, but it is difficult to grasp the full situation. The work reveals the gap between the information provided by technology and what people actually understand.

In "Chandra Chronicles: In Neuroverse," Yeom Inhwa creates an imagined world inhabited by beings with different neurotypes and forms of intelligence. Visitors step onto a walking platform paired with augmented reality (AR) and form relationships with various beings, guided by an AI-powered guide.

Yeom Inhwa Shin, "Chandra Chronicles: In Neuroverse." Hanwha Cultural Foundation

Through this experience, visitors get the sensation that their physical and cognitive abilities are expanding. The work explores whether it is desirable to assess all beings according to a single standard, and how beings with different forms of intelligence and perception can coexist.

Nam Mino presents "Rocket Sequence #11 Orbit." Combining footage of the board game Monopoly with an installation structure that transmits sound vibrations, the work examines how people try to understand reality according to fixed rules and goals.

Woobak Studio's "Body, Still, Moving" reconstructs people and spaces captured on digital maps. By layering people from different times and places on a single screen, the work explores how digital technology records and reproduces human and urban landscapes.

Chu Mirim's "Searching for a New Route" explores the computational processes of a computer animation program in collaboration with Claude. It shows how new visual forms emerge as the program's method of connecting lines changes.

View of the "As___As Possible" exhibition. Hanwha Cultural Foundation.

This exhibition is noteworthy for going beyond AI's use in generating images or assisting with creative work, and making the workings of the technology itself and the standards behind its decisions artistic questions. The artists use AI as a tool for expression while also making the effects of technology on human perception and behavior a subject of their works.

Through this collaboration, Hanwha Cultural Foundation plans to expand its support for contemporary artists' creative work, alongside its existing efforts to introduce works from major overseas museums to Korea.

Lee Seongsu, chairman of Hanwha Cultural Foundation, said, "Through this collaboration with Anthropic, we will explore new possibilities at the intersection of art and technology. Alongside our existing efforts to introduce collections from overseas museums to Korea, we will expand the foundation's programming to support the creative work of contemporary artists."

The exhibition is on view in the Ground Floor lobby and around the Multistation on the first floor of Centre Pompidou Hanwha. Admission is free, and it is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Monday.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.