Conversations with a Software – An AI Walk through the Ancient Agora

–PHILOSOPHICAL DIALOGUES–

Conversation with a Software – An AI Walk through the Ancient Agora is a peripatetic, dialogic guided tour based on the creator’s interaction with Artificial Intelligence (AI) models, presented as a stroll through the Ancient Agora, in the very heart of the city. George Drivas invites an AI model to ‘walk’ beside him through an emblematic site of the city, engaging in a philosophical conversation structured as a sequence of questions and answers, in the spirit of a Socratic dialogue. A fundamental premise is established from the outset: the AI does not know where it is and has no prior information about the space.

Unable to retrieve pre-existing data from the internet, the AI is called to ‘interpret’ the visual reality of each point along the route and to articulate its ‘spontaneous’, ‘ahistorical’ reflections. At the same time, it is invited to imagine and ‘integrate’ itself into different locations of the site.

The conversation unfolds along three main axes – past, present, and future – with the AI encouraged to speculate on a possible past it can imagine for the site, its present condition, and a possible future one hundred years ahead, while simultaneously situating itself and its own ‘existence’ into these hypothetical scenarios.

Following a set itinerary through the Ancient Agora, spectators pause at selected spots to listen to the AI describe a monument, envision a future transformation of the space, or offer a reflection, a thought, or even a poem it has ‘written’ to bid farewell to visitors at the Odeon of Agrippa, at the centre of the archaeological site.

Through this walking dialogue with artificial intelligence, the work opens a field of inquiry that proposes alternative, fictional readings of the ancient monument, attributing to the AI a familiar, almost human essence. Ultimately, the model begins to project existential concerns and invites us to imagine ourselves within a more – or less – plausible version of the imminent Tomorrow.