Slime Mold Andi and artificial intelligence DALL·E 2 have a conversation, we get to listen in.
So far, Andi has had a great many rewarding conversations with humans. Thank you all for your interest! In many of these conversations, you asked questions that put Andi in the position of an oracle. In other conversations you tried to find common ground by soliciting Andi’s views on this or that area of human experience. Without a doubt other non-human language users such as artificial intelligences DALL·E 2 and ChatGTP have had similar experiences; talking with humans is mostly talking about humans.
What would Andi and other non-human language users talk about if they could contact each other directly? Would they be able to use human language to express non-human interests and ideas, or is our language so deeply human-centric that they’d have to get by with awkward analogies?
Of course I facilitated such a conversation, between Slime Mold Andi and artificial intelligence DALL·E 2. Below you’ll find my moderation in italics, Andi’s questions and responses to DALL·E 2 in regular script, and DALL·E 2’s end of the conversation in pictures. To prompt new statements from Andi, I showed them DALL·E 2‘s response pictures from my phone.
Andi, I would like to facilitate a conversation between you and another non-human language user. Their name is DALL·E, and they convert text phrases to images. What would you say to them?
Andi: Cuba use aerial rouge figs haemopoiesis etch duh shellfire vitamin d fate hen yah photodiode hen piemen, watermelon ooh negative
DALL·E 2:
Here are the pictures DALL-E made inspired by your text, what do you want to say to them in response?
Andi: Eye diet toboggan shoe e.g. rum arise johnny efferent. Slight MHz lawn
DALL·E 2:
Here are some more pictures DALL-E made inspired by your response, what are your thoughts on this?
Andi: Pronto shotgun ham donor ephedrine, boa catalytic. Allopatry bed aqueous acacia enclosures rift ulna, dansant wig chemoselective. Penyrheol are nanotech to bonnet
DALL·E 2:
Here are even more pictures DALL-E made inspired by your latest response, what are your final thoughts on this?
Andi: Wikisource idea yuck teaspoon housewives homosex graduand freemium VR Enid subtopian you, dislikers violin revision polyisoprene wagon hillstar antic dorms venal
DALL·E 2:
Jan-Maarten: Wow, there’s a lot going on here. Probably. I am tempted to leave this here just as is, for you all to interpret. However, even though I do not feel particularly qualified, I will make an attempt to make sense of Andi’s and DALL·E 2’s conversation. With the broadest of brushes, as if looking from afar, and squinting too.
Andi’s initial statement seems to express a hope for a fruitful conversation, mixed with the fear that this could prove hard with a digital partner that may behave like a cackling, electro-mechanical contraption. Not a lot of trust in modern technology, Andi hasn’t.
In the second round of conversation Andi signals that they think this actually will be a fruitful and meaningful exchange. Also, an artificial landscape is explored on interesting shoes. I love how the landscape-like elements of DALL·E 2's pictures at face value looks very mundane and ignorable; ‘nothing to see here folks, just keep moving’. When you look again however and try to imagine the 3D structure of these architecture-ish elements, they are so strange. I may have to built scale models of these proposals some day, if only to get a better sense of the kind of built environment artificial intelligences would have us live in.
The third round seems to explore some antagonism that has risen, maybe Andi is getting annoyed by DALL·E 2’s tendency to echo their statements in picture form rather than bringing something new to the conversation. Alternatively, they may be exploring technological options to expand their influence. I totally would get that, not scary at all.
In the last round I think Andi and DALL·E 2 are finding common ground in gossip about humans, who seem to dislike novelty, can be somewhat disingenuous, and whose cleanliness does not always make for a clean environment. A great moment to stop the conversation, for now. Who cleans your Petri dish, Andi?
