untold blisses

A couple of weeks ago, we took a quick trip to the Barbican to see the AI: More Than Human exhibition which promised an exploration of developments in AI. Husband was very intrigued, I was just happy for a wander around the Barbican, and a special cocktail.

The tickets had mostly sold out when we went to book online, so we only had 11am as an option. We got there about 20 minutes before this to pick up the tickets and have a quick wander in the shop (mentally bookmarking things for later…) and were let into the main display space.

I immediately hated everything about this exhibition space – they had either sold way too many tickets or had underestimated how long it would take people to get through as it was rammed full of people. I nudged my way through the crowd, taking in bits of information – there was a lot of golems, stuff about robot vacuum cleaners, Bletchley Park, random computer hardware. I couldn’t really see the link between all this and AI, but it’s not an area I know that much about so I shrugged and carried on.

I left Husband looking at the various things he was interested in, and he caught up with me talking to an online chatbot further in the exhibition – he’s far more of an expert on this stuff and told me he didn’t get it either. They had seemingly grouped together random things and there was no coherence, nothing interesting or exciting. I think this article sums it up – it was banal. I just wanted to get through to the end for my treat – a cocktail made by a robot.

I was kind of let down by having to speak to a person as I wanted an entirely robot experience, but it was a lovely cocktail. Husband had a Negroni and I had a mocktail called a Roy Rogers which was really tasty. The Makr Shakr robots are actually very cool, and definitely make for an interesting bar experience.

The exhibition is on until the 26th August 2019 – skip it, enjoy a robot cocktail, and just wander around the Barbican instead. Much more fulfilling.