What is intelligence? Both human intelligence and what we term artificial intelligence? At this stage in our evolution, while our species seems to be doing everything it can to bring about its own extinction, can we really claim intelligence? In March 2023, hundreds of researchers and experts from the world of new technology called for a moratorium on the development of the most powerful artificial intelligence systems. It never happened. Since then, in the public space, the debates have been fast and furious: pessimists decry an imminent and complete loss of control, and optimists argue that one day AI will solve most of humanity’s problems. Yet, if we habitually define our species through its intelligence, what will remain of our identity when another entity – one we have created – takes our place at the top of the pyramid?
After exploring the fragility of the human body in the era of biotechnology in i/O (2021), the Posthumains duo turn their minds to the urgency of gathering around these vertiginous questions to get our arms around their importance, complexity, and richness. To create Une vie intelligente (An intelligent life), Dominique Leclerc (playwright and co-director) and Patrice Charbonneau-Brunelle (co-director and scenic designer) gathered a team of scientists, thinkers, and futurists to set the scene for an original, collective experience, miles away from alarmist discourse, at the crossroads of reality and fiction, technology and philosophy. This show that defies categorization, produced in collaboration with Université de Montréal and the architects of the Montréal Declaration on Responsible AI, celebrates what unites us when we reboot the machine.
“The democratization of AI is now in full swing, which our society is not prepared for, creating disruption, enthusiasm, and polarization. This play offers a space to come together to tackle the urgent, burning questions of the day. As artists, how can we get the conversation going with our tools, resources, and ways of seeing, imagining, and thinking about the world? How do you make these new questions concrete and tangible? Can the physical encounter theatre creates allow us to project ourselves into a future where not everything is a foregone conclusion?”
— Patrice Charbonneau-Brunelle and Dominique Leclerc
