When first viewing the work, Sweat for Generation seems like a simple contraption. Yet, as you get closer, you will realise that the work is a prompt page for ChatGPT connecting to a hand crank. Above the contraption, there is what looks to be paper or a receipt coming out of it, which seems to represent the response from the prompt.
The contraption’s simplicity allows the message on the energy economy and AI to be simple enough for any viewer and participant without being overly complicated (like some technologies can be). Though you can’t participate in the work in the publication or virtually, the reader should imagine having to crank the machine for hours, which seems strenuous for a human to understand the work if one cannot participate in it.
Moreover, due to its simplicity and minimalistic appearance, it looks sterile while also mirroring the similar clean appearance of an Apple product. This sterility could be a comment on how AI does not understand human emotions and thus produces quite sterile or soulless results.
The repetitiveness of cranking the machine, paired with the title of the work, “Sweat for a Generation”, suggests that to even get a result from the machine, you would have to crank for over a generation. While the UI of the machine is clean and has ease of access, which creates irony for the AI result- the process is inaccessible. The energy used for AI contributes to climate change. This then helps to cause natural disasters that would make life less accessible for those living in affected areas.
Using interaction in the work successfully translates the global issue of AI and energy consumption into something that can be visualised as an action rather than simply just data. The artwork not only criticisecriticizes the energy costs of such technology but also criticizes how AI uses data, images, and other material from humans (mostly without permission) in datasets to produce its results. This in itself is a form of exploitation of humanity and a part of the hidden labour behind AI.
Another form of hidden labour that is explored within the work is the sourcing of the raw materials to create the hardware used for AI and digital technology. One of such materials used for digital hardware is cobalt of which has a supply chain founded through modern day slave labor.
Evidently, the work pushes the conversation of the ethics of technology, in particular AI, and what lies in the convenience is not so much a convenience for the victims who power the machine.