AI is asleep · Sarah Wise de Jong

The project brief was to design and produce a publication for at least two different publishing channels, with one digital copy and one print copy. The publication should explore unconventional forms of narrative and comment on an aspect of today’s digital world, with consideration of how materiality and content changes based on the publishing platform and the reader experience.

My project speculates a situation where AI bots like ChatGPT are suddenly unavailable. It highlights the unnecessary dependence people are starting to have on AI for help with everyday questions, as I believe that modern society is beginning to encourage us to choose convenience to an extreme degree, leading to a decline in critical thinking, especially in young people.

By taking several categories of questions commonly asked to AI chatbots, and creating a networked bank of responses from real people in my community, I created a small, portable handbook which could replace AI when it’s ‘asleep’. The aim is to create a moment of reflection and a reminder of the value of human response and advice. 

The book was made with semi-transparent paper, playing on the idea of (the lack of) transparency in AI practices. In a similar vein, contributors of every answer in the book are listed at the end.

To add an analogue, human touch to the making, the cover type is letterpress printed in silver.

In parallel to the physical publication, I created a simple website which redirects users away from the habit of asking questions to a chatbot, and provides a way to download and print the handbook at home – or print extra questions and answers to add in. The user’s original question is posed back to them to remind them that they probably do have the resources and critical thinking skills to answer it themselves.

As I was designing and producing the physical and digital publications in parallel, the making of one informed the other.