Lauren Lee McCarthy on Software Values

Lauren Lee McCarthy, creator of p5.js, discusses her first long-form generative art project, Seeing Voices, with Peter Bauman, and argues that people should question the values built into the software they use. She describes making the drawings that form Seeing Voices by hand, interpreting AI-generated text phrase by phrase as if she were Midjourney, and then using custom software to combine and crop the scans. McCarthy says the companion piece, Voice In My Head, made with Kyle McDonald, lets participants customize an AI voice for their inner monologue, which raises questions about whether people want AI to replace their thoughts.