Exploring Human Creativity That AI Lacks　New Exhibition: "Deviation Game"

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.)

In this game, participants can select a category when drawing. A "Local Challenge Mode" has been introduced for a trial run—this features "Miraikan" as a category, alongside others like "Food" and "Places." Drawings that participants can create only because they have experienced Miraikan's exhibitions may give rise to expressions that the AI cannot 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.

(*) The tearoom going from zero to one is a gallery that uses art to reflect on how human perception and society continuously change along with advances in science and technology.

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.

The AI learns from vast amounts of data on the internet and uses image recognition technology to compare players' drawings against its training data to determine what they represent. To prevent the AI from answering correctly, players must attempt forms of expression that do not exist in the AI's training data, giving rise to new possibilities of expression that never existed before. This work questions "uniquely human" creativity that deviates from AI's specialty of "imitating the past."

Deviation Game was created in 2022 as part of the Art Incubation Program at Civic Creative Base Tokyo. Since then, it has been exhibited worldwide at Ars Electronica, the Taipei Digital Art Festival, Now Play This, and other venues, sparking important discussions about AI and creativity. It is scheduled to be released on Steam (a game distribution platform), making it playable worldwide.

Tomo Kihara

A game designer. He creates experimental games and installations that intervene in urban spaces, themed around play that elicits new questions. He creates venues for large numbers of people to explore how new technologies such as AI transform our society and thinking. His works have been presented at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Ars Electronica, the Exploratorium, and other institutions.

Playfool

Playfool is an art-design unit by Daniel Coppen (UK) and Saki Maruyama (JP). Their practice explores the transforming dynamic between human agency and technology through the medium of play. Their work invites critical engagement and reimagination of technology, often taking the form of experimental games and interactive installations.