London’s Young Vic has presented a new show, AI, that explores whether there could be a future in creative collaboration between AI and humans. If AI could write an article, could it create a play too, in real time, before an audience?
Using the GPT-3 algorithm for raw ideas, Jennifer Tang, the show’s director throws them out to the writers to be honed, poses questions to the audience and shapes the actors’ performances. The AI is prone to creating melodramatic stories about sex, violence and death, ut given the right prompts, it shows itself capable of thinking originally and, more miraculously, of imagining fictional worlds.