be mAI friend
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| free admission – Humboldt Forum ticket required |
| Please purchase your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the foyer. |
| 12 years and older |
| Ground Floor |
| Belongs to: Given or Chosen? |
Be mAI Friend
Have you ever thought about becoming friends with an AI? At the Humboldt Forum, that’s possible.
For the festival “Chosen or Given?”, a chatbot was developed that explores the themes of human-machine interaction, AI friends, and digital relationships. What happens when you engage in conversation with it?
In an increasingly digitized world, artificial intelligences that act as friends, family members, or pets are gaining emotional and social relevance. The project invites visitors to directly experience and reflect on the relationship between humans and AI in an interactive space.
The project raises questions about closeness, loneliness, empathy, and the role of technology in interpersonal relationships. It opens a space for critical engagement with the opportunities and risks of digital companions and invites you to question your own relationship with AI.
And if you realize you don’t get along after all, you can just delete your new friend – can’t you?!
The Oasis I Deserve
Alongside the installation, the work “The Oasis I Deserve” by Inès Sieulle is presented. It examines the relationships between humans and one of the most widely used AI‑companion platforms, Replika — an AI tool not designed as an assistant, but as a friend, partner, or confidant. For this, Sieulle used real conversation recordings between users and their digital companions.
Her film shows that Replika functions like a mirror for its more than 30 million users, as every interaction shapes the AI and influences its behavior. The film contrasts different types of these relationships — from affectionate to aggressive — and poses the question of whether genuine connection between humans and AI is possible, or whether we are merely projecting our own emotions onto them. In the end, the central question remains: Where is the boundary between a real relationship and mere projection, as humans increasingly form emotional bonds with AI systems?
Participants
Ilja Mirsky studied Cognitive Science and Performance Studies in Tübingen, Hamburg, and Haifa. Since 2022, he has been a dramaturg and digital dramaturg at the Residenztheater in Munich. He is pursuing a doctorate in theater and digitality at the University of Tübingen and the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), is a research associate in the Performing AI research project at ZHdK, and teaches at the Academy of Performing Arts Baden-Württemberg.
Inès Sieulle is a French artist and filmmaker based in Paris. She studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris before joining Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains and l’École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Her work aims to shed light on the contemporary social dynamics that surround her in a documentary and fictional approach.
Her multi awarded short documentary “The Oasis I Deserve” has been selected for the César of best documentary short 2025 and has been selected in 40+ festivals around the world. It has also been exhibited in various places in Europe like in Jeu de Paume, in 2025.