Es Devlin's Innovative AI Ethics Conference Merges Ancient Pottery with Modern Technology Debate
Renowned artist and stage designer Es Devlin has orchestrated an extraordinary conference at Oxford Kilns that combines hands-on pottery creation with profound discussions about artificial intelligence ethics. The event brought together a diverse group of participants including AI researchers, spiritual leaders, academics, and technology experts who worked with 160-million-year-old Jurassic clay while exploring divergent viewpoints about technology's trajectory.
The Ceramic Framework for Technological Dialogue
Devlin deliberately chose a potter's workshop as the conference venue, emphasizing physical engagement with ancient materials as an antidote to screen-based digital existence. "I felt the most appropriate place to hold the conference would be in a potters' workshop – with our hands in contact with 160-million-year-old Jurassic clay!" Devlin explained. "It's an antidote to eyes in front of screens with our hands dancing over keyboards."
Participants rolled up their sleeves and kneaded clay under the guidance of experienced potters, creating coil vessels, pinch pots, and decorated bowls. The conference followed a unique format where participants introduced themselves by first names only, mirroring a practice Devlin witnessed at a monastery retreat that helped opposing groups find common ground through shared activities before revealing their positions.
Preparing for the Schwarzman Centre Opening
The workshop serves as preparation for the opening ceremony of Oxford University's Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, the institution's largest single building project to date. Unlike much of Oxford's traditional architecture, the ground floor of this new centre will be publicly accessible, featuring a gallery, cinema, two theatres, and the world's first Passivhaus concert hall.
The centre also houses the Institute for Ethics in AI, with which Devlin has collaborated extensively. The 360 ceramic vessels created during the conference and subsequent public workshops will form part of "360 Vessels," an installation by Devlin and American composer Nico Muhly to be presented during the centre's opening festival.
Layered Conversations About Artificial Intelligence
While shaping clay, participants engaged in wide-ranging discussions about AI's impact on humanity and the Earth. Conversations referenced historical figures including Alan Turing and his famous test for machine intelligence, Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics from 1942, and contemporary thinkers like Ethan Mollick with his "centaurs or cyborgs" concept describing human-AI collaboration.
One particularly poignant contribution came from a workshop potter who noted that global AI discussions often exclude perspectives from developing nations. "She explained that her family came from what many would call the third, or developing, world," the article notes, "and that no one there was asked what they thought about AI, it was just happening."
Devlin's Personal Reflections on Digital Existence
Following the conference, Devlin reflected on participants' experiences with AI personification and her own decade-long exploration of large language models. She referenced Shoshana Zuboff's concept of "digital shadows" from "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism," connecting it to Peter Pan's lost shadow.
"I am aware that my art and my words and my every choice, my presence, is being used to train the algorithms that concentrate wealth among a small number of individuals," Devlin concluded. "And, in spite of this – however confusing, however painful – I would like to try to stitch my digital shadow back on to my feet and dance with it myself, and invite others to dance with it too."
The "360 Vessels" installation will be featured at Open House, a free festival at Oxford's Schwarzman Centre on April 25th, bringing together ceramic art, choral performance, and ongoing conversations about technology's ethical dimensions.
