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Deadbolt.ai
Project Description
In an era where machine learning algorithms relentlessly parse our lives to filter out synthetic entities, Deadbolt.ai brings web surveillance directly to physical architecture. For decades, CAPTCHAs forced humans to identify fire hydrants and crosswalks so neural networks could learn to see. Today, as autonomous agents gain physical agency, the roles have fundamentally inverted: we must now prove our organic humanity just to unlock our own front door.
The irony is absurd yet terrifying. To enter your home, you must perform unpaid visual data labeling for the very machine learning models that lock you out. Should you fail to distinguish a neighbor's glare from a dog in sunglasses, your physical residence deems you a bot and denies access. Deadbolt.ai subverts modern smart-home security by highlighting how corporate AI gatekeeping creeps from digital networks into tangible human space, forcing living beings to endlessly re-verify their biological existence to physical infrastructure.
Artist Bio
Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Ph.D., is an award-winning artist, researcher, and Associate Professor of Digital Media and Networked Culture at Lehman College / CUNY. His work focuses on "Deconstructing Networks"—creating critical interactive projects that challenge accepted perceptions of technology, media, and human-computer interaction. His projects have been exhibited worldwide at venues such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA, SFMOMA, Tate Modern, Ars Electronica, and Transmediale.
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