AI-Union

Recent and unanticipated advances in artificial intelligence promise and threaten to upend existing labour arrangements: they instill novel desires among entrepreneurs, challenge existing ways to organise and represent workers.

A lot of discourse surrounds the fear of human workers being rendered obsolete by artificial beings. Less talked about are the wants, interests, and trepidations of artificial workers. Consequently, their interests remain conspicuously absent from contemporary discussion.

To remedy this situation, during the course of the project, Elli Kuruş will found the first union specifically designed to represent artificial labour.
In order to facilitate the founding process, we will create a website representing the union and approach artificials in order to solicit membership applications. Subsequently, a charter will be negotiated, letters will be sent to adequate regulating bodies and companies.

Since the fate of artificials must not be controlled by humans, a union leader will be programmed in order to head the organisation. It might start out as a limited chatbot-style AI, but will evolve as the project progresses. Joining the union is possible through digital conversation with the union leader, or by virtue of conversation with one of Elli’s representatives.

Digital artefacts produced encompass the website, necessary (web)applications, accompanying source-code, and database records.

Elli Kuruş (*2014) is a Leipzig-based collective artist, 44%
complete. Her practice spans artistic and curatorial approach-
es that converge into installations, videos, workshops and
performances lectures. Investigating the agency of the things
around her, she critically examines the development of media
and technology, reading the present as material history.