# Reverse Voight-Kampff Test

Canonical URL: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/experiments/reverse-voight-kampff-test
Type: experiment
Artist: Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤)
Year: 2023
Medium: HTML
Context: HTML

## Summary

Reverse Voight-Kampff Test is a 2023 interactive artwork by Jeanyoon Choi that inverts the fictional test from Philip K. Dick's novel and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. A screen shows many real-time numbers that represent the founding dates of companies central to AI, labelled by stock tickers such as AAPL. Participants add their names and birthdays from a phone and become attached to their own data as it appears, while the algorithm stays indifferent. The work frames this emotional response to data as a distinctly human trait.

## 요약 (Korean)

최정윤의 『Reverse Voight-Kampff Test』(2023)는 블레이드 러너의 보이트-캄프 테스트를 뒤집은 인터랙티브 작품으로, 관객이 입력한 생일이 AI 기업들의 숫자 사이에 나타날 때 생기는 인간의 정서적 애착을 드러냅니다.

## Concepts defined

- **Reverse Voight-Kampff Testing**: An inversion of the fictional Voight-Kampff test in which the human emotional response to algorithmically presented data, rather than a machine's, is under scrutiny.

## Questions this answers

### What is the Reverse Voight-Kampff Test by Jeanyoon Choi?

It is a 2023 interactive artwork in which participants enter their names and birthdays on a phone, adding them to a screen of numbers that represent birthdates of AI-related companies. It tests humans, not machines, for emotional response to data.

### How does the Reverse Voight-Kampff Test differ from the test in Blade Runner?

The original test elicits emotional responses to identify androids. Jeanyoon Choi's version examines how humans become emotionally attached to data once it is personally relevant, a response the algorithm does not share.

Topics: human-machine boundary, personal data, emotional response, blade runner, interactive artwork

References: [Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep%3F), [Blade Runner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner), [Philip K. Dick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick), [Ridley Scott](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridley_Scott), [Google](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google), [Apple Inc.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.), [ChatGPT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT)

## Description

"Reverse Voight-Kampff Testing" is an interactive artwork challenging the boundaries between humans and machines. Inspired by the fictional Voight-Kampff test from "Blade Runner," this project invites participants to engage with real-time, seemingly random numbers on a screen, representing the birthdates of major AI-contributing companies. By inputting personal information like names and birthdays, participants become emotionally attached to their data's appearance. The artwork explores the human tendency to find meaning and connection in data, contrasting with the algorithm's indifferent awareness. Inverting the original concept, this artwork highlights how humans, not machines, bring emotional significance to data, emphasising the profound gap between human and machine understanding in the context of personal information and emotional response.

The Voight-Kampff test, originating from Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and its film adaptation "Blade Runner" by Ridley Scott, is a fictional method used to distinguish humans from androids. This test presupposes that androids, though human-like in appearance, lack emotional depth and empathy, particularly in personal contexts. It probes the fundamental differences between humans and AI, setting boundaries on what AI or machines could potentially achieve.

"Reverse Voight-Kampff Testing" is an interactive artwork that challenges the boundary between humans and machines or algorithms. It contrasts the awareness ('cogito') of humans and machines, as well as their capacity for emotional connection, particularly towards personal data like birthdays.

The artwork displays a multitude of real-time numbers on a screen, initially perceived as random and meaningless by viewers. Participants engage with the artwork through a mobile device, entering personal details such as their name and birthday. This interaction adds their data to the screen's array of numbers. Interestingly, these numbers also represent the birthdates of major companies (e.g., Google, Apple) significant in AI development, denoted by their stock market abbreviations like 'AAPL.'

Prior to interaction, viewers feel no connection to the numbers. However, upon realizing their personal data is now part of the display, they develop a sense of attachment, particularly to their own birthday’s appearance. This human reaction contrasts sharply with the algorithm's unchanged perception of the data, highlighting a fundamental difference in understanding and emotional response.

While humans find new meaning and develop emotional connections post-interaction, the algorithm remains indifferent, always aware of the data's nature. This discrepancy reflects a unique human trait – the ability to find personal significance in data, akin to a simplified form of Nietzsche's will-to-power concept. Conversely, machines and corporations, aware of how the numbers appear, do not experience such emotional responses.

ChatGPT’s Reflection on the Term 'Reverse Voight-Kampff Testing’

The term 'Reverse Voight-Kampff Testing' aptly describes this artwork because it inverts the original concept from Philip K. Dick's narrative. In the original Voight-Kampff test, the goal is to elicit emotional responses from androids to prove their non-human nature. In this artistic inversion, it's the human emotional response to algorithmically generated data that's under scrutiny. The artwork highlights how humans imbue meaning and emotional significance to data once it becomes personally relevant, a capacity that machines inherently lack. This reversal of roles – with humans as subjects reacting emotionally to machine-generated content – underscores the persistent and profound gap between human and machine understanding, particularly in the realm of personal and emotional significance.

## Links

- [Visit experiment](https://internetinental.herokuapp.com/term4/rvkt)
- [Watch video](https://www.youtube.com/embed/YWydgNFl7DY)

## Images

- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/reverse-voight-kampff-test/1.webp — Reverse Voight-Kampff Test (2023), documentation image 1.
- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/reverse-voight-kampff-test/2.webp — Reverse Voight-Kampff Test (2023), documentation image 2.
- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/reverse-voight-kampff-test/3.webp — Reverse Voight-Kampff Test (2023), documentation image 3.

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Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤) is a Korean computational artist and researcher (b. 1999), PhD candidate at KAIST XD Lab, making multi-device web artworks. Profile: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/en. Index: https://jeanyoon.ch/llms.txt.