Supertask is conducting an experiment. Come to Mission Ballroom on Friday, March 13th, and you’ll be one of his data points.
The gathering kicks off his 17-stop Phase II: Observation tour. It follows last year’s Phase I: Calibration shows at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom. Altogether, these outings build toward the ultimate goal of using AI to measure how people respond to music in large group settings to optimize collective experiences.
This is all part of a venture called Infinity Problem for which Supertask (real name Kyle Bishoff) says he’s obtained a provisional patent. By examining crowd behavior with the cold precision of machine learning algorithms, he hopes to turn audience members into active participants in his immersive experiment.
“The main meaning of the phrase ‘observation,’ in the context of the tour, is trying to get participants to observe their own thoughts as I have,” Bishoff explained on social media. “I have become entirely fixated on learning more about myself, my place in the world, and more specifically the entertainment industrial complex. The visuals and theme of the tour represent this in what I can only hope is an entertaining way.”
Bishoff’s “machine vision system,” SIM, will use sensors, infrared cameras, LED prompts, and motion tracking to collect data during his show. Equally important is what he won’t gather. Bishoff has promised that Infinity Problem will not ever collect personal identification or facial recognition data, ensuring his followers that the resulting information will only be used for entertainment purposes.
“My hope is that [the patent] prevents someone with nefarious intent from controlling large groups of people with AI, as it is now demonstrably possible,” Bishoff wrote. “This future was inevitable if technology continued improving.”
He continued: While the calibration events might have been uncomfortable on the surface, they allowed me the proof of concept to file and obtain the patent, so thank you for trusting me enough to pull that off. As for what comes next, the model needs more data, training, and analysis to be able to obtain the non-provisional, or the official, patent.”
Come to Supertask’s Mission Ballroom show on Friday, March 13th, and you could be part of a new frontier in live music experiences. Make sure to get your tickets as the buzz around this outing is rightly reaching a fever pitch.
