The Other AIThe Other AI

With chatbots as our latest social obsession, it is more important than ever to explore the practices, pleasures and pitfalls of AI as automated intimacy. Artificial intelligence is often approached primarily from a cognitive perspective, as a tool for mental or routine tasks. In The Other AI, we focus on the ‘other’ side of so-called intelligent machines: the intimate, sensory, and emotional attraction that this technology exerts on us as sentient beings.

This two-day event takes place at the V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media and the Nieuwe Instituut, and is structured around the themes of sex and love.

• Day One at the V2_ Lab: Desiring Machines: Sex and Robots
  Artists and academics will explore how technology is changing, or revealing, our erotic practices.

• Day Two at -1 Digital Lab, the Nieuwe Instituut: Virtual Love and Companionship – for Real
  Performances, lectures and workshops will explore the utopian and dystopian possibilities of technologised love, asking: how real does it feel?

V2_Lab for the Unstable Media is an interdisciplinary centre for art and media technology. It presents, produces, archives and publishes at the intersection of art, technology and society. V2 explores the social impact of technology through critical dialogue, artistic reflection and practice-oriented research.

Queer Analysis This programme was created in collaboration with the Queer Analysis Study Group, a research group focused on studying queer objects, subjects, encounters, and practices, and how these contribute to and resonate with contemporary culture.

-1 Digital Lab is a research studio and experimental space for digital culture, located in the basement of the Nieuwe Instituut. In 2026, -1 Digital Lab explores the theme of technology and desire.