‘Ai or Nay?’ at Media Majlis examines AI’s place in art and media

Media Majlis, a museum at Northwestern University in Al-Rayyan, Qatar, is currently presenting Ai or Nay? Artificial vs. Intelligent, an art exhibition featuring works that activate artificial intelligence (AI). The show explores the relationship between human and machine creativity, with a specific focus on its significance in media and journalism. Ai or Nay is on from January 15 – May 15, 2025, and brings together leading artists and art collectives from the Middle East and beyond, including Palestinian, Dutch and French-Algerian artists Larissa Sansour, Jan Zuiderveld and Kader Attia, who contribute a diverse body of art to the show.

Sansour shows Palestinaut (2010), a toylike sculpture of an astronaut featuring the flag of Palestine. It questions whether the people of Palestine are welcome on earth, or if they should go to another planet. Meanwhile, Zuiderveld presents Dream Machine (2023), which is a hacked Xerox photocopier. Audience members can create an illustration and feed it into the machine, which in turn uses AI to scan the input and add a texture to the drawing based on a predefined painter’s art style. Attia's Demo(n)cracy (2009) is a light installation that questions the role of democracy in the Middle East as a tool of western hegemony. There is also Saudi Arabian artist Abdulnasser Gharem, who is showing No More Tears (2013), an artwork that ties the famous slogan by shampoo company Johnson & Johnson to a promise made by US president Barack Obama, in Cairo in 2009, implying that the United States has failed to deliver on its assurances of peace in the Middle East. Paris-based Palestinian artist Hani Zurob is also represented at the exhibition, through Big Brother is Watching You #01 (2014), which is a self-portrait depicting him in his underwear, gazing directly at the viewer while CCTV cameras look away, highlighting the absence of privacy, even in nakedness.

Ai or Nay is organised by Jack Thomas Taylor, curator of art, media and technology at the Media Majlis Museum, Northwestern University. The curator joins STIR for a conversation that explores the place of AI in new media art, along with some of the deeper ethical issues surrounding its use.

Manu Sharma: What do the works in Ai or Nay reveal about global research and social media trends in AI?

Jack Thomas Taylor: One of Ai or Nay?’s major revelations is that today, we must all improve our investigative skills. Whether in our daily interactions, workplace, or on social media, we must learn to recognise where, when, how and why AI is used. This responsibility can no longer be outsourced to others, such as journalists.

Within the realm of artistic exploration, we are seeing new artworks emerge that use AI to explore certain topics, but works from the past also address the same issues. Ai or Nay? brings these together through an AI-centred lens. I don’t think anyone ever imagined these works—that span media, time and context—could be brought together and make sense in an exhibition focusing on AI. When examining discussions on surveillance, privacy, climate change, geopolitics and social matters, it became evident that these issues are not novel—they have existed long before the AI hype, and they will continue to exist beyond it. Regardless of their age—whether created this year or twenty-five years ago—artworks originate in disruption, but consistently address persistent issues, remaining both historically and contemporarily significant.

The emergence of AI has further altered this dynamic, often providing a single response to a prompt. Without a curious mindset, a penchant for exploration, and a critical outlook, individuals may uncritically accept this solitary response as the ultimate truth. – Jack Thomas Taylor, curator of art, media and technology, Media Majlis Museum, Northwestern University

Manu: How does the exhibition highlight the growing danger of AI-driven misinformation on social media platforms?

Jack: Ai or Nay? begins by emphasising the omnipresence of AI in our lives and then delves into themes such as hindsight, insight, foresight and oversight. It draws attention to the fact that the issues we now associate with AI have long existed but are now being accelerated; pre-existing systemic biases are now embedded within our day-to-day interactions without being necessarily questioned. The latter theme of the art exhibition, oversight, is multifaceted as it questions what needs oversight and sheds light on areas that have been overlooked. One of the featured works in this section is the film Where Do They Stand? (2025). This piece uncovers both the limitations and potentials of AI through a dialogue between different large language models (LLM). By asking each LLM the follow-up question - why? - the inherent biases are revealed, and allow audiences to see how they respond to particular prompts.

Manu: How does Jan Zuiderveld’s Dream Machine build a dialogue between human and AI-driven artmaking?

Jack: Jan Zuiderveld’s Dream Machine prompts questions about the democratisation of creativity by transforming an everyday office photocopier into a gateway to AI-enhanced creativity. Visitors tread the fine line between AI augmenting the human imagination and replacing it with machine intelligence. It calls into question whether the democratisation of image reproduction could be moving a step further towards artistic expression. In many ways, this initiates a visible and subtle dialogue. While audiences may perceive it as a form of entertainment, what they may not realise is that their interactions with the artwork can reveal much more. For example, do they take the artwork home, treasuring it as a keepsake? Or do they abandon it, seeing it as worthless? Do they reconsider and alter their creation? Or do they reflect on whether the AI’s interpretation aligns with their own vision? It’s at this point where tacit and explicit knowledge start to come together.

Manu: How does the exhibition highlight the historical link between AI and slavery, as you mentioned in the exhibition glossary?

Jack: Throughout history, humans have imbued artificial beings with spiritual significance, such as the Dogū figures of ancient Japan and the Golem of Jewish mysticism. These figures occupy a unique space between the human, the divine and the mechanical. In Greek mythology, Pygmalion was an artist who carved and then fell in love with a sculpture, a cautionary tale revisited through literary and theatrical adaptations for centuries, exploring the complexity of human relationships with artificial offspring. These beings always possess an ingrained dual nature—as protector and potential threat, devoted and enslaved—which raises questions relevant to contemporary debates on machine consciousness and personhood.

In an age filled with AI companions and digital intimacy, one artwork in the exhibition—Larissa Sansour’s Palestinaut—prompts us to consider the implications of imagining artificial futures while human sovereignties are under threat. The astronaut in her work, adorned with a Palestinian flag, serves as a reflection on our selective technological optimism. As AI devices promise connection and companionship, they exist in a world where basic human rights are still being denied. From democracy to digital assistants, humanity’s greatest innovations often conceal exploitative practices and power dynamics. Artworks have the power to urge us to ask what hidden structures are shaping our future. This is seen in Anatomy of an AI System (2018) by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler [A project examining the labour, data and resources needed for one Amazon Echo] and Demo(n)cracy  by Kader Attia—they both acknowledge the obscured or erased contribution in technological progress. Together, these three artworks remind us that any imagined future must first address and secure the present we all share.

Manu: How can we better navigate the ethical issues surrounding AI?

Jack: To begin with, I believe the first step is towards widespread adoption of AI. As I observe the current landscape, I notice three main categories of individuals: Those who are sceptical and avoid using AI, those who are enthusiastic and integrate it into their daily lives, and finally, those who rely on AI but feel embarrassed about it and try to conceal this. In the future, distinguishing between AI-generated content and human-generated content is likely to pose a growing challenge. However, I think individuals who are well-acquainted with AI and possess a deep understanding of the context and environment in which they operate will discern when something seems amiss. For instance, they may notice discrepancies, such as a colleague using unfamiliar vocabulary or encountering information that appears too good to be true. This ties back to my earlier point about honing one’s investigative skills.

Moreover, it is crucial to be mindful of the ongoing paradigm shift. In the past, we relied on libraries as repositories of knowledge, with a vast array of books, journals and resources to expand our knowledge. The advent of the internet transformed this landscape, offering search engines that facilitated rapid access to information from various sources. However, the emergence of AI has further altered this dynamic, often providing a single response to a prompt. Without a curious mindset, a penchant for exploration and a critical outlook, individuals may uncritically accept this solitary response as the ultimate truth. In Ai or Nay? we use art to remind us to challenge who is shaping our future. Abdulnasser Gharem’s No More Tears reveals how lofty pledges can conceal deeper patterns of control, while Hani Zurob’s Big Brother is Watching You #01 prompts us to question who is monitoring the promises made to us. Furthermore, Surveillance Speaker (2018 – 2025) by Dries Depoorter offers a firsthand look at the ethical issues when AI is connected to a CCTV camera, providing a voice that articulates everything it thinks it can see. This ethical inquiry sheds light on how technology can both amplify and silence voices, emphasising the importance of obtaining balance and transparency in media and communication.

To make responsible decisions, we must deepen our understanding of ethics, privacy and consent. As we navigate increasingly sophisticated forms of data manipulation, it becomes crucial to challenge who is crafting our future. Despite being three different works imagined separately and created within their own artistic epoch, together, they compel us to ask who is ensuring ethical oversight of our increasingly opaque technologies.

‘Ai or Nay? Artificial vs. Intelligent’ is on from January 15 – May 15 at Media Majlis Museum in Northwestern University in Al-Rayyan, Qatar.