“Can we think much, much weirder?”: Jennifer Walshe’s book on AI reviewed

13 Ways Of Looking At AI, Art & MusicJennifer WalsheFundacja Tone Pbk 52pp“I’m both sublimely excited and blackly horrified about what is coming,” wrote Jennifer Walshe in “Ghosts Of The Hidden Layer”, an essay she delivered at Darmstadt in 2018. Originally published online in December 2023 by Unsound festival, 13 Ways Of Looking At AI, Art & Music distils much of Walshe’s recent music and writing into an essay infused with her characteristic big ideas, dry humour and gritted teeth. “AI Is Fan Fiction” tackles the questions of artistic ownership that anger AI’s critics, finding both expressive and exploitative potential in audiences’ new generative powers. If some details, such as the assertion that all AI art draws attention to the means of its creation, have already dated since 2023, Walshe’s main concerns are more salient than ever. “Can we think much, much weirder?” she asks, issuing a challenge as much to herself as to her readers.