The tearoom going from zero to one

Deviation Game – Exploring what makes our expression human

Explore the uniquely human creativity that AI lacks, through a drawing game between you and AI.

This is a game-based project by artist Tomo Kihara and art/design unit Playfool. It draws inspiration from the "Imitation Game"—a thought experiment conceived in 1950 by Alan Turing, the father of computer science. While the "Imitation Game" focused on whether AI could imitate humans, "Deviation Game" reverses this relationship, attempting to make humans deviate from AI's understanding.

This project was created by artist Tomo Kihara and art/design unit Playfool. Participants take on a challenging game in which they draw in ways that "humans can understand, but AI cannot." If other participants correctly guess what the drawer has depicted while the AI answers incorrectly, the humans win.

Conversely, if the AI guesses correctly, the AI wins. To avoid being outsmarted by the AI, participants must deliberately deviate from what the AI has already learned (past data found on the internet), exploring the possibilities of new forms of expression that have never existed before.
(Participant play data will not be used for AI training without consent.)

This work has been exhibited at various art spaces and festivals, both in Japan and abroad. For this presentation, “The tearoom going from zero to one” features a special mode with prompts themed around “Miraikan.” Participants who have actually experienced the museum’s exhibitions may create drawings that give rise to expressions that AI could never predict.

As AI penetrates society at an astonishing pace and increasingly threatens to surpass our creative endeavors, this exhibition provides an opportunity to think deeply about what expressions only "humans" can achieve, and how humans should engage with AI as it continues to evolve.

Let’s think about this together while playing the game.