AICON

As an emergent field, cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence technologies are evolving rapidly, with a tremendous impact on society. AICON connects artists, researchers, and citizens to co-create and think about the beneficial societal impact AI could have while mitigating potential risks. This project focuses on empowering communities, allowing them to discover what defines their environment and how they engage with the world. With this, AICON strives to have a positive impact on the democratisation of AI, making it understandable and accessible to communities.

AI for all,
by all

AICON is a growing movement that once started from the social and behavioural science department at the Erasmus University. It now has lots of different kind of parties involved and it has increasingly more support. Movements are also starting to emerge from outside of the city of Rotterdam, so it is expanding beyond the Erasmus University campus.

At AICON, we co-create and attempt to make sure that the bias of the offline world doesn’t transfer into the online world. Art inspires, prompts thought and creates movement. Art is a great tool to create understanding about something invisible and ungraspable like AI, because an artist has the ability to make something visible in an accessible way. You can immediately tell what you think of a work of art or how it makes you feel. AICON aims to create understanding of AI by providing a creative perspective.

An elemental aspect of this project is starting conversations with each other about artificial intelligence in society. Human input is the basis of AI - it does not operate without it. It's therefore essential that the human input is from all of us and not merely from a limited group of people behind the scenes. The intersection between people from different walks of life can bring new insights and as a consequence we can create more inclusive solutions.

GOALS

Strive to be a radical intersectional project by working together with people from various disciplines and communities to co-create impact that benefits the community as a whole.

Strive towards true human-centred innovation

Work guided by key values such as equivalence, mutual exchange of knowledge and experiences, reciprocity, transdisciplinarity, creativity and re-examining of values.

Achievements

Faces of the City (Stadsgezichten) is an art project in which we invited those from the community to create their own artwork and turned it into NFT art.

Coming up: The AICON team is working towards an art installation about artificial intelligence in society that will be exhibited in Rotterdam at the end of this year. There will be multiple spaces in which works of art will be displayed that have been put together in co-creation with AI, artists, scientists and citizens of Rotterdam.

Partners & contributors