Annie Dorsen: Prometheus Firebringer

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Annie Dorsen considers how the proliferation of artificial intelligence in our daily lives feels unprecedented and asks: “Have we been here before?” Each evening of this performance, the predictive text model GPT-4 generates speculative versions of the lost final play of Aeschylus’ Prometheia trilogy. Performed by a chorus of AI-generated Greek masks, this story from ancient Greek mythology tells how Prometheus stole the god’s fire for humans–sparking sudden and dramatic advances in technology and the arts, as well as dramatic new sources of conflict. Dorsen delivers a text composed entirely of quotes from the internet on tragedy and memory, what machines are learning from us, and knowledge (and ignorance) of societal undoing. At the heart of the piece lies the same question that philosopher Simon Critchley observes animates Greek tragedy: “What shall I do?” Probing existential questions about truth and agency, this engaging performance continues Dorsen’s exploration of the contradictory impacts of technology.