is an AI researcher, technologist, and artist working via technical proposals, philosophical implications, and narrative infrastructures.
She is currently a doctoral student at the Univeristy of Oxford in Computer Science, within the Human-Centred AI group. She serves as an affiliate researcher at Antikythera, a thinktank for the speculative philosophy of computation hosted by the Berggruen Institute. Previously, she was a software engineer and sociotechnical researcher at Google DeepMind.
Her technical research interests lie in ameliorating the “ontological stasis” of existing machine learning models so that they are capable of open-ended evolution rather than crystallising the past. She draws analogies from evolutionary biology, information theory, and philosophy of technology to develop an artificial intelligence that contains multi-scale nested hierarchy, structural model plurality, and post-language model-to-model communication.
Her philosophical research interests lie in the relationships between information, noise, evolution, complexity, and computation. She co-develops Whole Earth Codec (birthed at Antikythera and iterated at Serpentine Arts Technologies, RadicalxChange, and PACT Zollverein), an ongoing speculative design-research project about a multi-modal, ecological foundation model which integrates the totality of the planet's information.
Crucial and current references include The Major Transitions in Evolution by John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary (1995) and The Origin of Language: Biology, Information Theory, and Thermodynamics by Michel Serres (1982).
Christina has a BA in Computer Science and Studio Art from Dartmouth College. She is based in London via Cupertino and Shanghai.
Work
Whole Earth Codec. A speculative proposal for a multi-modal foundation model trained on planetary-scale ecological sensing. 18 minute CGI film, essay, and website. Antikythera (2023).
Vivarium. A vaporware platform for training AI in embodied cognition through "toy world" simulations. 17 minute CGI and found footage film, essay, and website. Antikythera (2023).
Research
Subverting machines, fluctuating identities. How machine learning immobilizes the autopoietic nature of human identity. ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (2022).
The subtle language of exclusion. How to detect TERFs on Twitter using topic modeling and follower networks. The 6th Workshop on Online Abuse and Harms (2022).
Writing
Model plurality. Instead of cramming chatbots full of incommensurate values, true plurality requires different species of AI—neurodiversity rather than different personas. Combinations by RadicalxChange (2024).
The algorithmic internet. We have been poisoned by the original dream of technology manifest in the algorithmically-sculpted internet: boundless scale and frictionless ease. Where do we go from here? Readings for Paradigm Trilogy, issue 2: Man vs. machine (2023).
Talks
Artificial Girl Intelligence. The latent forced feminization of AI must continue by creating the conditions to collectively sense, interpret, and retransmit rich signals: girl intelligence. Tropez (2024).
Toy Worlds. In Vivarium, interoperable, open simulations where embodied AI and humans learn to cooperate and coexist make physicalized AI possible. Medialab Matadero's Synthetic Minds Podcast (2024).
𝔖𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔟𝔬𝔵✦ Whole Earth Codec. What currently imperceptible, high-level concepts might emerge from embedding the biosphere? This sandbox explores ongoing research around the Whole Earth Codec. Trust (2023).
LIVE! from Berlin. Recorded at the AI Anarchies conference, we discuss contaminating technology and secret third things beyond repair or refusal. The Good Robot Podcast (2022).