MAGIC INTELLIGENCE IN THE CLOUD? NO!

Magic Intelligence in The Cloud: Tech Bros Fantasy Oil on linen 112 x 92 cm2025

THE LURE OF MAGIC

The four paintings in this post were inspired by a fantastical comment made by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a conversation with Jony Ive, from io Products. The conversation was a prelude to a merger of OpenAI with io Products. If you watch the videoed conversation (Youtube), at around 3.50 minutes Sam Altman says, 

'We have like magic intelligence in The Cloud'. 

'Magic intelligence' is a euphemism for artificial intelligence (AI), also a problematic term. The term 'artificial intelligence' was first used in 1956 when Professor John McCarthy, Dartmouth College (USA), organised a workshop to discuss so-called thinking machines. 

From  - thinking, to artificial, to magic!

SALAMI

Professor of computational linguistics Emily Bender is a vocal critic of generativeAI technology, as well as the blanketing term 'artificial intelligence'. She often refers to an alternative description coined by Stefano Quintarelli -  'Systematic Approaches to Learning Algorithms and Machine Inferences  - SALAMI'. As bender points out, asking questions such as 'Is this SALAMI intelligent?' and 'Will SALAMI have emotions?' very quickly exposes the weakness in assumptions (magical thinking) that AI will ultimately have emotions, be sentient, require human/robot/AI rights, be creative, and more  

SO-CALLED: THE CLOUD

AND, 'The Cloud' is also a euphemism - for interconnected computer systems, the Internet, and the massive material infrastructure that supports our increasingly hyperconnected and data producing-consuming world. 'The Cloud' is not a wet, vapourous 'magical' place. It is a web of cables, signals, earth-satellite assets, data centres, computers and more. This infrastructure requires energy, water, and in many instances cheap human labour. These demands have worsened since the accelerated availability of generativeAI tools in the last 2-3 years. Kate Crawford, Karen Hao, and Emily Bender, are a few contemporary commentators publishing research on the increasing resource and human cost of 'The Cloud'. 

Tung Hui Hu in his fascinating 2015 book A Prehistory of The Cloud  offers salient insights into the so-called 'Cloud'. For example, he notes, 'To use the cloud is to willingly put on an electronic collar; it is to fuse our hunt for data with our identities.' He reminds us that in this type of world, 'we are both the targets of others and targeters ourselves'. And, artist and author James Bridle in his 2018 book The New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future notes, 'Today the cloud is the central metaphor of the internet: a global system of great power and energy that nevertheless retains the aura of something noumenal and numinous, something almost impossible to grasp.' Seven yeas after Bridle made his comment, Altman grasps onto the 'something noumenal and numinous' when he attempts to conjure magical intelligence in 'The Cloud' as a lure, a promise, as aspirational... 

HYPE - MAGIC
When the hype around tech products/systems reaches a level where magic is invoked, where religiosity, and even alchemic thinking are inferred, we need to pay attention. From trusted, to trustworthy, to responsible, to safe, to agentic AI - to magic. The language of hype is expressed in words that shift as the hype surrounding the technology meets with failure, criticism, and questions. Words might give comfort - until they don't. 

My last post The Words We use: ENCODED delves into the question of language. 

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Hu, Prehistory of the Cloud, (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2015), 111.

James Bridle, The New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (London: Verso, 2018), 6.

Magic Intelligence in The Cloud Gouache on paper 76  x 56 cm 2025

Magic Intelligence in The Cloud was the first painting I created after hearing Altman's magic statement. The figure acts like a 'signal' linking the various 'clouds'. The militarise-ability of civilian technology in a hyperconnected world, as regular readers know, is a major concern of mine. In this kind of world, magical thinking is very dangerous. 

Magic Intelligence: Exposed Gouache on paper 56  x 76 cm 2025

In Magic Intelligence: Exposed the 'magic intelligence' is painted as strings of binary code, a 'label' or 'tag' on the dark cloud. Inside this dark cloud, a data centre structure extends into a seemingly unfathomable distance. The figures act as 'signals' linking 'The Cloud' to sources of data; each figure a conduit due to devices we use and carry. In our hyperconnected world, the human being becomes a node  -  this has nothing to do with magic.  

 

Magic Cloud: Mapped Gouache on paper 76  x 56 cm 2025

Cheers,

Kathryn