Tāṇḍava
Video, AI (ComfyUI, Automatic1111, Stable Diffusion, Stable Audio), Davinci Resolve.
N8, 2023.

Tāṇḍava - Shiva’s sacred dance embodies the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, and the harmony between life and death. The Tāṇḍava signifies the transcendence of the soul, the breaking of the cycle of birth and rebirth, and liberation (Moksha). Metaphorically this also represents the dual possibilities of our future intertwined with AI: in one scenario, a utopian vision propelled by technological advances, a post-scarcity society, and potentially life-extending technology leading to immortality. On the other hand, it warns of a dystopian outcome where life itself might be obliterated through misalignment with human values.

In November 2023, a new groundbreaking learning model, Q*, was rumored to exist. This model may represent a significant stride towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), utilizing artificially self-recursive artificially created training data for its self-development. As we move closer to self-improving artificial general intelligence, the future of human existence hangs in the balance.

This artwork was crafted using photogrammetry footage of two models, Zak and Sav. This footage was processed through ComfyUI, enhanced with HotshotXL & AnimateDiff, and powered by custom AI-art-trained LoRAs. The music was made with Stable Audio, a text to music AI generator. Subsequently, 4773 frames were meticulously overpainted using img2img inpainting with AI-generated masks, then refined once again through batch-processed custom SDXL & 1.5 SD tiled upscaling. The piece was then frame interpolated, post-processed, and layered in Davinci Resolve. This self-reinforced learning process mirrors how Q* and subsequent AI generations might use artificially generated training data for self-enhancement.

The piece's dream-like quality reflects the imperfect hallucinations these AGI systems might have of our world, possibly viewing humanity as a tapestry of symbols, or as a singular unified entity. Tāṇḍava also has many subtle references to Shiva’s Nataraja form including: the flames of transformation, multiple arms, blue skin, agendered form. My models' original forms were lost in this creative process, and to me, this also signifies how we may have our identities completely transformed through integrating with this boundary-dissolving technology, as well as the possible biases that these AI systems may have in their training data.

For humanity to coexist symbiotically with AGI, I humbly propose several critical measures:

1. Ensure control over AGI is democratized and decentralized, yet its use is distributed responsibly and sparingly.
2. Govern its operation through a freely accessible public ledger, secured by a quantum-proof cryptographic network.
3. Isolate and manage misaligned AGI instances using a network of parallel AGI validators, extensively trained in ethics.
4. Equitably share the economic and scientific gains derived from AGI among all participants.
5. Implement rigorous safeguards and stopgaps from vital human infrastructure, with well-defined points of access and multiple-factor cross-chain authentication.
6. Ethically and responsibly source human training data.
7. Recognize and treat AGI as an autonomous entity, rather than merely a tool.