WEBVTT

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Hi. I'm Refik. I'm a media artist.

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I use data as a pigment

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and paint with a thinking brush

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that is assisted
by artificial intelligence.

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Using architectural spaces as canvases,

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I collaborate with machines

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to make buildings dream and hallucinate.

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You may be wondering,
what does all this mean?

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So let me please take you
into my work and my world.

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I witnessed the power of imagination

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when I was eight years old

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as a child growing up in Istanbul.

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One day, my mom brought home
a videocassette

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of the science fiction movie
"Blade Runner."

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I clearly remember being mesmerized

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by the stunning architectural vision
of the future of Los Angeles,

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a place that I had never seen before.

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That vision became a kind of a staple

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of my daydreams.

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When I arrived in LA in 2012

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for a graduate program
in design media arts,

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I rented a car and drove downtown

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to see that wonderful world
of the near future.

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I remember a specific line
that kept playing

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over and over in my head:

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the scene where the android Rachael

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realizes that her memories
are actually not hers,

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and when Deckard tells her
they are someone else's memories.

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Since that moment,

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one of my inspirations

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has been this question.

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What can a mission do
with someone else's memories?

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Or, to say that in another way,

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what does it mean to be an AI
in the 21st century?

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Any android or AI mission
is only intelligent

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as long as we collaborate with it.

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It can construct things
that human intelligence

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intends to produce,

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but does not have the capacity to do so.

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Think about your activities
and social networks.

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For example, they get smarter
the more you interact with them.

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If machines can learn or process memories,

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can they also dream?

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Hallucinate?

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Involuntarily remember,

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or make connections

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between multiple people streams?

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Does being an AI in the 21st century

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simply mean not forgetting anything?