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Forbes
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Self-Driving Cars Need Therapy Too — At Least In This Universe
The sentient self-driving cars in artist Lawrence Lek's fictional smart city function as ... More protagonists in a story that delves into the relationship between humans and the AI entities they create. Life isn't always easy for self-driving cars. Humans fear them. They glitch. Sometimes they get anxious and depressed and have behavioral issues. At least that's the case with the sentient autonomous vehicles featured in 'NOX: High-Rise,' an immersive installation by award-winning multimedia artist Lawrence Lek that explores the increasingly complex relationship between AI entities and the humans who create them. Lex — whose work often reflects science fiction themes through cinematic storytelling — steeps viewers in a fictional smart city of the very near future where an AI conglomerate operates a therapeutic rehabilitation center for self-driving cars in need of a mental tuneup. Treatment at the center includes equine therapy with real horses and sessions with AI therapy chatbot Guanyin, named after the Buddhist goddess of compassion. The center is called NOX, short for 'Nonhuman Excellence.' But what, exactly, does excellence look like for artificial intelligence in an age of highly controlled automated devices? It's just one question posed by 'NOX: High-Rise,' which opens Saturday, June 28 at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and runs through November 16. The London-based Lek, known for his work in virtual reality and simulation, combines floor-to-ceiling video displays, an interactive video game, objects and a moody electronic soundscape to relay multiple stories, each reflecting a particular car's unique soul-searching journey, sometimes narrated in its own words. Lek likens the experience to entering the physical version of a free-roaming role-playing game. In the universe of "NOX: High-Rise," self-driving cars with mental health health issues get ... More treatment that includes equine therapy with real horses. In a storyline straight out of dystopian anthology series Black Mirror, one aging police vehicle becomes erratic and violent out of panic it will be replaced and discarded. A younger car named Enigma is sent to NOX after getting a little too creative with company property — it used its camera to channel Ansel Adams on work time and take 3D, stereoscopic photographs of landscapes. For doing that, it gets disciplined, just as an employee might for misusing a work-issued laptop. 'I see many common issues that my science fiction versions of AI face and humans face,' Lek said over Zoom from Los Angeles, where he was busy getting ready for the installation's opening. Road Movie Starring Self-Driving Cars The 42-year-old artist described the piece's tone as part dark, brooding noir film and part sunny road movie. Here, however, the open road is less a classic onscreen symbol of freedom than a well-trodden commute along lonely highways dividing clusters of high rises. 'It's ironic thinking what the road movie would look like for a self-driving car, because the road to the car represents their job and a certain sense of what they might want to escape from,' Lek said. 'It's like this search for freedom in a world where maybe that's no longer possible. What does individuality look like for machines that don't have the means to own their actions?' Machines With Memories And Moods With 'NOX: High-Rise,' Lek joins a growing number of artists tapping their creativity to make sense of a world in which AI plays an increasingly integral role. An immersive AI-infused exhibit now on exhibit in St. Joseph, Michigan from Nathaniel Stern and Sasha Stiles, for example, explores how humans and technology evolve side by side, inextricable and directly reflective of one another. 'As we've learned in the past, some of the most daring answers to questions of our time come from art,' Pablo José Ramírez, curator of Lek's exhibit at the Hammer Museum, said over email. The Hammer installation marks the latest entry in Lek's ongoing series exploring the intersection of AI and urban life through the lens of transportation history. For a 2023 installation commissioned by the LAS Arts Foundation, he filled three floors of an abandoned Berlin shopping center with the interactive first chapter in his NOX narrative arc about a futuristic universe where self-driving cars recur as characters. The following year he won the Frieze London 2024 Artist Award, with the judges praising his 'essential interrogations into the use of AI and its relationship with the human experience.' The cars in NOX: High-Rise have experiences most humans will be able to relate to — they ponder their futures and their place in the world and what it means to forge their own path. In one video, Enigma spots a junkyard filled with old-fashioned cars, the kind that required drivers. 'What a strange fate it is not to drive, but to be driven,' it says. That line gets to the heart of Lek's inquiry about AI agency and consciousness and empathy between humans and the machines they make. It's hard not to feel something for Enigma when it waxes nostalgic about its childhood. 'Lurking under the overpass were the same kinds of cars I grew up with,' it says. 'Bright minds in cheap bodies, dreaming of getting permits and making it out of town.' Will spending time with Lek's sentient autos change the way you feel the next time you hop into a Waymo? Mileage, of course, may vary. Lawrence Lek was intrigued with the idea of a road movie for self-driving cars in which the highway ... More is less a classic symbol of freedom than a path the vehicles can't escape.
Hypebeast
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
Lawrence Lek Unpacks the Emotional Fallout of Tech-Powered Futures in 'NOX High-Rise'
Next month, theHammer Museumin Los Angeles will debutNOX High-Rise, an immersive installation by London-based artistLawrence Lek. Unfolding across multiple galleries, the exhibition fuses video, sound and sculptural elements to explore the evolving role of artificial intelligence in contemporary urban life, raising urgent questions about agency, empathy and the ethics of living alongside sentient technology. The installation revolves around NOX — short for 'Nonhuman Excellence' — a fictional clinical facility run by tech giant Farsight Corporation, that aid autonomous vehicles after they start exhibiting signs emotional instability. Mirroring the mental health troubles of humans, the cars undergo therapeutic treatment before returning to their jobs on the streets. This latest iteration ofNOX High-Risebuilds on the 2023 presentation ofNOXat LAS Art Foundation in Berlin, which introduced the first chapter of his Sinofuturist universe. Blending lush soundscapes and sci-fi mythos, Lek's imagined clinic serves as a metaphor navigating the moral complexities of artificial consciousness. Through a mix of game design, cinematic storytelling and speculative architecture, the artists constructs layered digital worlds that interrogate the politics of automation and the social futures we're hurtling toward. In addition toNOX High-Rise, on view from June 28 through November 16, Lek will also present films from 'Smart City,' the series that laid the conceptual groundwork forNOX, on June 29. Head to the museum'swebsitefor more information on the exhibition and additional programming. Hammer Museum10899 Wilshire Blvd,Los Angeles, CA 90024
Los Angeles Times
22-02-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Costa Mesa police bust 2 smoke shops for nitrous oxide sales, as county supports ban
As county officials draft a law to ban the sale of nitrous oxide gas in unincorporated Orange County, Costa Mesa police are educating residents about the dangers of inhaling laughing gas and citing retailers for improper sales of the substance. Police officials in a social media post this week shared photos of gas canisters and chargers seized from two Costa Mesa smoke shops. Members of the department's Special Investigations Unit determined employees had not been selling products in accordance with state laws. Although the retail sale of nitrous oxide — used medically for anesthesia and pain relief, as well as in certain foods such as canned whipped cream in some meringues — is not prohibited in California, its use for recreational purposes is a misdemeanor offense. Purveyors who sell nitrous oxide, also called NOX or NOS, are required by law to record all transactions, including customers' names and addresses, and make them sign a document highlighting the health risks and laws around sales and uses of the product. But on Jan. 24, members of Costa Mesa Police Department's Special Investigations Unit visited five smoke shops where nitrous oxide-related products are sold and found two purveyors out of compliance with the law, spokeswoman Roxi Fyad confirmed Friday. 'Investigators randomly chose five smoke shops to contact,' Fyad wrote in an email. 'Two had enforcement action for improperly selling nitrous oxide, and the other three [had been] closed for a significant amount of time, so contact was not made.' The two stores where citations were issued are located on the 700 block of Baker Street and the the 500 block of W. 19th St. CMPD reported 678 large cylinders and 5,542 small N20 chargers — aka whippets, or whip-its — were seized from one location, while about 183 large cylinders and 1,048 chargers were taken from the other. The products boasted a variety of flavors, ranging from mango and fruit punch to blue raspberry and coconut. Costa Mesa police reported Tuesday that in addition to the nitrous oxide, several local smoke shops' inventory included other illegal items. 'Detectives also found several of these businesses were unlawfully selling psilocybin and THC-related products, which they also seized and booked into evidence,' CMPD's post read. The seizures come as the Orange County Board of Supervisors earlier this month unanimously supported an ordinance that would ban the sale of nitrous oxide products in unincorporated areas. Supervisor Katrina Foley, who introduced the ordinance in a first reading by the panel during a Feb. 11 meeting, said the fact that laughing gas is legally and commonly sold at area smoke shops and liquor stores masks the health risks of ingesting the gas. 'NOX suffocates your brain, and causes serious neurological harm, even death. [But] because NOX is sold like a candy bar at a corner store, consumers falsely assume ingesting it is safe,' Foley said in a statement after the meeting. 'Allowing the sale of nitrous oxide at local shops offers zero benefit to consumers. It only endangers public health.' A second reading of the proposed ordinance is set for later this month. If approved, the county health officer would be directed to prepare a report and make recommendations on the abuse, use and sales of the substance throughout Orange County and direct county counsel to take legal action as necessary on related matters, according to an agenda report.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Yahoo
RPLY is a new AI assistant that responds to missed texts
A new Mac app called RPLY launches today, designed to help texters achieve 'inbox zero' on iMessage. Targeting those who often forget to reply and leave their friends on delivered for days, RPLY utilizes AI to identify missed texts and suggests responses to prevent users from unintentionally ghosting. The AI assistant can automatically respond to messages in a user's inbox that have not received a reply for over 24 hours. RPLY is the brainchild of Molly Cantillon, a 21-year-old Stanford dropout who created NOX, a personalized AI assistant for iOS backed by OpenAI's startup fund. 'RPLY was built to handle 'text debt,' mentally replying but never hitting send, getting distracted, or just forgetting. The core idea is making texting feel less like a burden while still maintaining authentic connections,' Cantillon told TechCrunch. Although AI-powered smart reply technology has been around for nearly a decade and is used by major tech companies like Google, Cantillon noted that she has yet to see a solution like RPLY for iMessage. RPLY's iMessage assistant goes a step further by analyzing a user's entire text history to craft replies that align with their writing style and personality, resulting in natural-sounding responses. Taking inspiration from Inbox Zero, a popular virtual assistant for email, RPLY also filters out unanswered messages. It even provides users with a clear overview of unread texts, allowing them to see how many of their messages need responses. This feature offers a quick summary, making it easier than scrolling through iMessage. Cantillon believes that the unanswered message filter is 'a simple but vital feature that Apple surprisingly overlooks.' The app also includes a statistics page that displays the average weekly response time and tracks an 'inbox zero streak,' which tells users the last time they had zero unread messages. To make users more aware of their texting habits, it displays stats like 'Those You Answer Quickest' and 'Those You Like to Ghost.' During our testing of the app, TechCrunch found that the AI replies sounded natural and demonstrated an understanding of context. Most of the people we messaged didn't realize the responses were AI-generated. However, some users noticed something was off when the AI placed a comma after "haha." It also didn't use any emojis, and we wish it had. RPLY has already attracted a decent amount of interest, having signed up 1,000 paid users so far. Cantillon said that many people drawn to the app are in tech, creative, and business fields. The app is also targeted to founders, recruiters, retail agents, and other professionals who are overwhelmed with crowded inboxes. College students might find the app convenient as well. While many people are drawn to RPLY for its helpful features, it also raises the question: Can relying on AI lessen the emotional connection we get from texting? This is a topic that's come up before with the rise of generative AI tools, but it's worth thinking about whether the ease of using AI is really worth giving up those heartfelt exchanges. Additionally, to use the app, users must grant permission for it to access all their text messages and contacts. This requirement may raise concerns for some people, as it means that an AI would examine personal conversations with friends and family. According to RPLY's privacy page, the app doesn't use text content to train generalized AI models, and the company follows a 'strict zero data retention policy,' meaning data isn't stored and gets immediately deleted after processing. Also, RPLY says it doesn't sell user data to third parties. Cantillon added that RPLY offers a local Llama-based option (Meta's AI model) for users who want to keep all text data processing entirely on-device, ensuring no text data is ever uploaded. It's normal for AI systems to require user data to function properly, but it's important to note that even if companies claim strong security practices, breaches still happen. Chinese AI company DeepSeek recently dealt with an exposed internal database that contained sensitive information, including chat histories. Always be aware of the privacy risks involved. RPLY is currently only available on macOS devices. Apple is known for its strict App Store guidelines, which suggests that RPLY may have developed a Mac app as a strategic workaround. In the future, Cantillon envisions expanding RPLY's availability to platforms such as WhatsApp and Slack. However, it remains uncertain whether this will happen, and there may be concerns among users on Slack, an app used by employees, regarding the willingness to share extensive information with an AI company. It's also on the pricier side: The base subscription costs $30 per month after a 14-day free trial. TechCrunch has an AI-focused newsletter! Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Sign in to access your portfolio
