Author Appupen talks about Dream Machine and the dangers of succumbing to AI

Co-author and artist of Dream Machine Appupen on his latest work

With the subtle infiltration of AI into almost every aspect of our lives, the spectre of Dean Koontz’ Demon Seed (1973) going from the pages of a novel to becoming our reality, looms disturbingly large.

At the launch of his graphic novel Dream Machine (Westland) at Blossom Book House in Bengaluru, author and graphic artist, Appupen (George Mathen), discussed various facets of the book as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its inroads into our lives with Padmini Ray Murray, founder of Design Beku, a collective dealing with technology and design.

“I didn’t know much about AI at first. I studied it for five months before I began any work,” Appupen candidly admits. Appupen who has a background in advertising, co-authored Dream Machine with Laurent Daudet, a physics professor and co-founder of a new generation AI startup in France.

The seemingly unlikely collaboration between the two — a graphic artist and a CEO — finds itself in the pages of Dream Machine. The plotrevolves around the dilemma of the protagonist Hugo, whose AI tech which is soon to be bought by a digital conglomerate, could be misused on so many levels.

The chance to live forever via one’s work in AI seduces people into thinking it is for the greater good. Another character in Dream Machine, attempts to convince the protagonist to jump on the AI-money making band wagon because if he didn’t, “someone else eventually will.”

During the event, Appupen kept pointing out how the powers that be have introduced AI to the public as something fun to be enjoyed. However, their underlying agenda and the many uses it can be put to (both benign and malignant) are yet to be understood.

“AI makes your life more convenient, but I think the question to ask is ‘For whom and at what cost? How badly do we need that convenience?’ In the past year, we have become comfortable with AI — toying with tech stuff, such as images and cute avatars. There is a concerted effort to make AI friendly for everybody; a distraction because of which we are not going behind the scenes and seeing all that is possible with it,” he says.