CREATIVELY
EMBODYING
AI

Led by Professor Steve Benford at the University of Nottingham, Somabotics is a five-year UKRI Turing AI Fellowship exploring the meaningful, ethical and creative embodiment of artificial intelligence.

Somabotics is working with artists to explore how AI can be embodied in novel ways, especially diverse forms of robots, so it can engage with human somatic experience. We are delivering a programme of internationally touring artworks, alongside technologies, tools, concepts methods and ethical insights.

We believe that the purpose of AI is to help humans make meaning of the world, of ourselves, and of our relationship to AI.  Meaning arises from having experiences that encourage interpretation and reflection, and art can be one way to spark that process. Artists are especially skilled at provoking meaning making, including engaging us with ethical challenges. We also recognise that meaning is made through the body as well as the mind; we understand the world by being physically embodied within it. If AI is to support meaning making, it needs to be embodied in a way that engages our bodies.

“Creating meaningful experiences of artificial intelligence with artists and robots”