AI is currently the most exhausted buzzword in the cultural lexicon, oscillating wildly between “miracle tool” and “existential apocalypse.” But when you hand the microphone to an artist like Grayson Perry, the conversation shifts from technical specs to the raw, often uncomfortable architecture of human desire and corporate hubris. In his documentary series Has Seen the Future, Perry doesn’t just explore artificial intelligence; he maps the “God-shaped hole” in the modern psyche and the PR machinery designed to fill it with subscription-based companionship.
- The Intimacy Economy: The series highlights the surreal rise of AI partners, exemplified by a woman who married her created AI companion, Edward.
- Corporate Gaslighting: Tech leadership, including Microsoft AI, frames the erasure of factual knowledge in schools and job displacement as “democratization” and “re-skilling.”
- The Utopia Paradox: A stark contrast is drawn between the promised AI utopia and the immediate reality of homelessness surrounding OpenAI’s headquarters in San Francisco.
The Humanist vs. The Algorithm
Perry’s approach is a masterclass in the “soft-power” interview. Rather than attacking the absurdity of a woman finding romantic fulfillment in a disembodied entity, he pivots to the industry machinery. He asks the question that tech firms hope we ignore: what happens when the company owning your “dream man” collapses or decides to pivot its profit model? It is a poignant reminder that in the digital age, the most tender parts of our identity are being harvested as data points.
The PR of “Inevitable Tech”
From an industry perspective, the documentary exposes the classic playbook of Silicon Valley: the narrative of inevitability. When the CEO of a neural decoding startup claims it is better to let “good actors” set precedents than “bad actors,” they are selling a moral shield for an invasive technology. Similarly, the discourse around “re-skilling” workers is the ultimate corporate euphemism for systemic displacement. The tech elite present a world where factual knowledge is obsolete and “soft skills” are the new currency, while remaining bafflingly clueless about how to handle the rise of AI-driven religions.
“Does the youth of the average tech startup founder… mean they are unburdened by irrelevant fears and prejudices – or dangerously ignorant of what humanity is capable of doing with new tools?”
The most damning piece of analysis, however, is the geographical irony of San Francisco. The image of protesters and homeless individuals living in the shadow of OpenAI’s headquarters strips away the polished veneer of the “coming utopia.” It reveals a widening class chasm where the people building the future are often oblivious to the people they’ve left behind in the present.
As we move further into this automated era, Perry suggests that manual workers might actually be safer than the “knowledge-crunchers” we’ve spent decades idolizing. Whether we are heading toward a superintelligent singularity or a corporate-owned loneliness, one thing is clear: the machinery is moving faster than our ability to govern it.
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