Ai vs AI: Ai Weiwei asks 81 questions to Artificial Intelligence

Over a period of 81 days – the length of time Ai spent detained in a Chinese prison – the artist will pose 81 questions addressed to artificial intelligence (AI) and the wider public. Appearing every evening at 20:24 (local time) on Piccadilly Lights, each question carefully considers the role of humankinds’ minds and actions in a fast-changing world, amid accelerating global crises and the rise of new technologies.

“This is not about freedom of speech. This is about freedom of questions,” says Ai Weiwei. “Everybody has the right to ask questions.”

Ai vs AI - BTS Images, Credit Leroy Boateng, ©CIRCA

The 81 questions will be answered comparatively by Ai and AI systems, published online throughout these 81 days.
“Time and expectation are part of the project,” says Ai, with Ai vs AI marking the first time he has used artificial intelligence as a tool for artistry and a creative counterpart in his practice. Questions hold a wealth of wisdom, says Ai, who has curated a progression of 81 philosophical provocations – idiosyncratic, humane, humorous and incisive – that explore the centrality of our own personal quests to make sense of a world that has reached information overload.

Milan, Luxottica, Piazzale Cadorna _ Ai vs AI by Ai Weiwei ©CIRCA

The project takes inspiration from the Tiānwèn (天問, translated as ‘The Heavenly Questions’ or ‘Questions to Heaven’), a set of 172 questions to the gods written on the walls of a temple some 2,300 years ago by the legendary poet Qu Yuan. At the same time, it explores the coincidence that this commission will last for 81 days, the same duration that Ai spent imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party. During 81 days in prison, Ai Weiwei was subjected to continuous interrogation by an authority that wielded its absolute power through mass manipulation of information: an unequal right to ask questions and have them answered. The questions that will appear on the CIRCA screens in Ai vs AI are partly self-authored and partly gathered from friends and collaborators. These questions will open a public forum for continuous acts of questioning, while seeking answers – from himself (Ai) as well as artificial intelligence (AI) to generate a portrait of the world today.

Berlin, Limes DooH (Kurfürstendamm) Rendering _ Ai vs AI by Ai Weiwei ©CIRCA

Launching CIRCA 20:24, this major new commission marks the beginning of a new seasonal programme consisting of four responses to the year, circa 2024. Ai Weiwei, who launched the CIRCA project in October 2020, returns as the first artist to embark on this three-month public residency by responding to the CIRCA 20:24 manifesto, ‘BREAK FREE: TIME’S ARROW FLIES FOREVER FORWARD’: “For the year to come, we return to our point of departure with our questions renewed. How does art play a positive role in a world so fiercely divided? How do we live a creative life amid intensifying systems of artificial intelligence that threaten to remove humanity from artistic production? How do we integrate our minds into knowledge systems – ecological, digital, forbidden – whose workings defy us?”.

Seoul, COEX K-POP Square Rendering _ Ai vs AI by Ai Weiwei ©CIRCA

Ai vs. AI will appear each night through January, February and March 2024 at the new time of 20:24 (local time) in London, Seoul, Milan, Lagos, Accra, Nairobi, Abidjan, Berlin.