Energies of AI

Energies of AI looks at artificial intelligence through the physical and social systems that keep it running. Curated by Antonio Somaini, the exhibition considers the electricity, water, critical minerals, computation, labor, and capital behind AI alongside the effects these technologies produce across culture and everyday life. Its setting at MAAT, partly housed within Lisbon’s former Tejo Power Station, gives that question of energy a particularly direct architectural context.

The exhibition brings together recent work by artists including Hito Steyerl, Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, Trevor Paglen, Grégory Chatonsky, and Fabien Giraud. Several projects are being produced specifically for the show, addressing subjects such as the hidden labor used to train AI models, its material metabolism, machine learning, surveillance, and forms of psychological influence.