The Model is the Message - a talk on ML and AI: inference, ethics and the arts

A free 1-hour talk by Marcel Top and Tessa Edwards on creativity and exploration in Machine Learning and AI as both the instrument and subject of societal critique and reflective self-evaluation. From deepfakes and facial recognition to digital privacy, surveillance and ethics around AI and creativity. ### About the Artists Marcel Top is a visual artist working between Belgium and London. Top researches the topics of mass surveillance, privacy, data collection. In his practice, he layers a traditional approach to documentary research with a more experimental use of new technologies (such as facial recognition, movement analysis, and deepfakes). The artist uses these technologies to visualise and examine scenarios in which people can protect themselves and their rights by gaining knowledge and reclaiming control of surveillance tools. Top’s work has been exhibited internationally, including FOMU Antwerp, Fotofestiwal Łódź, Athens Photo Festival, Circulation(s) and PhEST. He received the Encontros da Imagem Discovery Award for *Reversed Surveillance* (2024), the Prix Médiatine (2024), Folio #3 from the Institut pour la photographie (2023), and a PhMuseum Grant exhibition award (2022). His work is held in the collections of the University of the Arts London and the Institut pour la photographie in Lille.