"Scan your face and the computer will tell you which party you are voting for": in a nutshell, this is how the AI voting booth that has now been set up in the Science Communication Lab works. The scientific-artistic research project "Smile to vote" is intended to inspire reflection on the claim of global IT companies to improve the world and on the supposed objectivity of algorithms.
The small experiment has a disturbing effect - and it is intended to be. The installation "Smile to vote" is intended to make us think about the use of artificial intelligence - and about how much AI already knows about us. Or seems to know. Alexander Peterhänsel, Professor of Visual Computing at the Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Amberg-Weiden, developed this installation. He and his team have trained the AI with images of politicians who sit in German parliaments. The installation is linked to the website of a fictitious start-up that advertises the automation of voting processes in the future - a fake company, so to speak, whose statements are designed to scare people. The voting booth itself is more disturbing than threatening - and you run the risk of going home with the feeling that you look like politicians from a party that you are anything but fond of.
The installation can be experienced as part of "AHA - The Science Communication Hub" until Friday, 7 March 2025, in the Science Communication Lab in the entrance hall of the Deutsches Museum (level -1) - right behind the current special exhibition "Light and Matter".