Audrey Kim, the founder and curator of San Francisco's Misalignment Museum, is pictured in the museum's upstairs gallery on March 9. Kim became fascinated by machine learning as an early employee at Cruise.The Misalignment Museum flips this dynamic. It treats us as people interacting with technology, rather than merely a consumer base — a society, not an economy.
“We’re all in this boat together,” Kim says toward the end of our tour, back upstairs. She ardently believes in that collectivist approach: The museum’s neighbors contributed tools and late-night food deliveries in the months preceding the opening; an anonymous benefactor funded the operational costs; the gallery’s landlord donated the space until May. The museum is free to visit and open three days a week, though Kim said she’s hoping to build a donor base to fund a permanent collection.
The Misalignment Museum, located on the corner of Guerrero and 14th streets in San Francisco, is scheduled to run until May 1.Kim whirls around, giving treats to her dog Murphy and straightening up. Part of the point of bringing as many people as possible in, she says, is that thinking hard about AI takes a lot of “processing power” — more than one person can manage alone.
As she opens up the door for the evening’s first public visitors, I’m reminded that for now, AI doesn’t decide what happens to society, or even what goes on in this museum. San Franciscans do.
auderdy this looks really cool! Would definitely visit next time I’m in SF (cousins live there)
auderdy Didn’t know this was your project! Cool!
auderdy Awesome, Audrey!