Anatomy of an AI System digital poster. - Victoria & Albert Museum - Search the Collections

The Anatomy of an AI project, created and designed by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, consists of a website, digital publication, physical publication and digital map. Published online in September 2018, the project responds to the technical and human infrastructure behind Amazon's voice assistant'Alexa' and the Amazon Echo device that it is enabled by. Often with the case of proprietary or closed technology such as the Amazon Alexa, it is difficult to see the infrastructure and technology behind these and other similar voice assistants. The Anatomy of an AI System project shows in detail – a result of extensive research by technology and social science researchers, as well as Joler and Crawford – the complex journey through which digitally-enabled consumer devices come to exist in society. This digital poster, to be printed at a minimum scale of 220x360 cm, is a contemporary record of obscured, inaccessible digital and corporate processes.