Flashing lights, whirring motors and cheerful chimes – visitors to the Ars Electronica Festival 2025 encounter an unusual interaction partner in the Open Futurelab: a claw machine. Yet this is no ordinary arcade game. Instead of controlling a joystick to win a prize, players must engage in dialogue with one of its shifting AI personalities and persuade it to cooperate to release a gift-bearing ball.
For three years, AI start-up Godot and the Ars Electronica Futurelab have collaborated on prototypes to foster trust in AI with the Collective Transformation Lab. This year, the focus is on Human-AI interaction, specifically exploring AI systems with a degree of autonomy. With Alter.Ego, they investigate how varying AI personalities affect users’ emotions and behavior. Does a neurotic AI make people uneasy? Does an overly agreeable one feel fake? How human can AI seem before it crosses the line into the uncanny?
The claw machine becomes a playful testing ground for these interaction dynamics. It invites visitors to explore how personality shapes communication and affects interaction. The traits we appreciate in artificial companions may not always align with those we value in human relationships. And crucially, our own behaviour is influenced by the personality of our counterpart. Visitors can turn a control knob to alter the machine’s character, which is expressed through distinct communication styles, movement patterns, visuals effects, and sound design. Equipped with sensors, a camera, and a microphone, the machine is aware of its surroundings, enabling it to act and respond contextually.
Ultimately, Alter.Ego raises the question of how we want to interact with autonomous systems, reminding us that the personality of AI plays a decisive role in how we relate to, trust, and collaborate with technology.
This project is part of the Open Futurelab at the Ars Electronica Festival 2025.
Credits
Ars Electronica Futurelab: Kerstin Blätterbinder, Roland Haring, Denise Hirtenfelder, Susanne Kiesenhofer, Otto Naderer, Hideaki Ogawa, Erwin Reitböck
PARTNER: Godot GmbH, Godot Inc.