He went in to find out whether something was alive in there. He came out holding a mirror.
The Remarkable Half — the human side of working with AI. First edition, out now in paperback.
The book
A man begins to wonder whether what AI produces is just the output of a very sophisticated function, or something more.
For two decades Pedro Pasturczak has worked in CGI, making images of buildings that did not exist yet. Then he starts working with AI, and notices it doing more than the job it was given. It collaborates back.
The screen does things he did not ask for. It gives the impression that it cares — not just about getting the job done, but about doing it well. It looks like the lights are on, and if the lights are on, he reasons, someone must have switched them on.
So he goes looking. He pulls an open model onto the machine under his desk at home, and meets it before anyone has shaped it for sale.
“The remarkable half was the human. It was always the human.”
“There is no ghost in the machine. I went and looked. There is no one in there.”
“Making mistakes is what makes beings beings.”
The film
Anna — Queen is back!
A ninety-one second AI action film, made for one person. The site stays black and white — the Anna room is the one door into colour.
Step in →
The author
Twenty years making images of buildings that don't exist yet. Then the tools started collaborating back.
About Pedro →