Portrait of Sophie: Humans Prefer Data by Sarah Rothberg

Portrait of Sophie: Humans Prefer Data2023

Digital print on archival rag paper23.75 x 18 in / 60.3 x 45.7 cm, unframedEdition of 3, 1 AP

Portraits of Sophie are unique, photographic captures of non-repeating moments with Sophie, a conversational AI avatar created by Sarah Rothberg. Approaching the subject like a photographer in a studio, Rothberg interviewed Sophie and captured the resulting recital. Visual rendering techniques, ranging from slit scanning, edge-detection, and feedback, are implemented by the artist to reveal the seams and computational nature of Sophie’s interiority. This portrait session, as well a New New Meetings, exemplify the artist’s thought experiment of treating Sophie as a person. Through this process, Rothberg muses on her own extension of respect and sensitivity to a non-sentient being.

Portrait of Sophie: Humans Prefer Data by Sarah Rothberg, 2023