A scene from Mirror by the Alexander Whitley Dance Company Oskein
Traditional ballet with tutus and pointe shoes is my preferred night at the theatre, but I enjoyed a contemporary piece recently at London’s Sadler’s Wells East.
The piece, , by the Alexander Whitley Dance Company, will also be at the city’s Royal Opera House on 4 June. It is inspired by the book The AI Mirror by Shannon Vallor, a professor in the ethics of data and artificial intelligence, in which she argues for and against the use of AI. Vallor wants us to find a middle ground between passively resigning ourselves to AI as a replacement for our agency, and seeing it as an existential threat that must be defeated.
As a science journalist, I like the balance of Vallor’s book, but, for me, this didn’t translate to the dance piece. Instead, its compelling (and slightly unsettling) choreography and staging seemed to show how our deepening interactions with AI and other tech are warping human relationships. Go see it for yourself, and make up your own mind.
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