A woman is set to become the first person to marry a hologram powered by artificial intelligence.
With AI becoming increasingly sophisticated, the question inevitably arises at what point it will be capable of providing genuine companionship.
This raises a whole heap of questions about the nature of consciousness and humanity, and these are questions central to the work of Spanish artist, Alicia Framis.
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It's Alicia who is making plans for her wedding to an AI-powered hologram, called AiLex.
This wedding isn't Alicia's first foray into using her performance art to explore questions around companionship.
She previously lived with a mannequin called Pierre as a way to explore love and companionship, but the latest piece takes things in a more futuristic direction.
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The artist frequently posts about her relationship on her Instagram page @hybridcouples.
In one post about the relationship, she wrote: "It’s a romantic relationship between a woman and artificial intelligence.
"We know that soon robots and humans will be sexual partners, but for me, the next important step is emotionally involving artificial intelligence with humans."
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There are catches to the content of course.
Hologram technology does exist, but it is extremely expensive and impractical.
We're not quite at the stage of Blade Runner 2049, with a ceiling-mounted hologram projecting your hologram partner around your tiny dystopian apartment.
We do have the tiny dystopian apartments though, so you could say we're halfway there.
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With this in mind, it would seem that AiLex is actually added in posts on the Instagram videos rather than being actually present in the home.
Not only that, but the hologram featured in her videos appears to be a collaborating artist or actor rather than being computer-generated.
It's not clear exactly how AI has been factored into the piece at the moment, it could be that the hologram's responses are generated by AI.
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The performance series is set to involve wedding ceremonies, with the artist saying that the wedding will take place at the Depot Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam.
Though she has also said it could go to other 'venues' hinting that it could go on tour.
She has also shown a new brass name plate in a post to Instagram, which has both her name and that of AiLex engraved on it.
Framis is not the first artist to use marriage as a central theme in a performance.
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In 2016, British artist Tracey Emin, known for her piece My Bed, married a rock in her garden, calling it 'an anchor, something I can identify with.'
Topics: Art, Artificial Intelligence, News, Technology, World News, Weird
Kit Roberts