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Steph Maj Swanson, a.k.a. Supercomposite, is a multimedia artist and writer best known for her story about the AI-generated woman Loab, which The Atlantic dubbed “a form of expression that has never existed before." Loab is an emergent character that arises in certain AI image synthesis models, accessible via negatively weighted prompts, often appearing alongside macabre imagery such as dismembered women and children.
Swanson views her relationship to AI as adversarial, both in her creative process and as a commentator. This non-technical, but conceptual talk offers up art alongside possible strategies. It will be of interest for hackers intrigued by the creative potential of these tools, but who may have ethical concerns or doubts about the way these tools are assembled, built, and deployed.
Galleries West described Swanson’s body of AI-generated visual work as “the merging of repulsive with beautiful,” and The Washington Post called her satirical AI writing “disturbing”. At DefCon this year she debuted her short film SUICIDE III, which uses deepfakes of Joe Biden and Sam Altman to explore where an out-of-control AI hype cycle might take us.