Burning Man announces artificial intelligence theme for next year’s festival

Burning Man’s organisers have announced that next year’s theme will be based on I, Robot, a series of short stories focussing on artificial intelligence and their impact on mankind written by Isaac Asimov.

Published in 1950, the short stories are all about the various degrees of artificial intelligence and the human-machine Interface.

"This year’s art theme will focus on the many forms of artificial intelligence that permeate our lives; from the humble algorithm and its subroutines that sift us, sort us and surveil us, to automated forms of labour that supplant us," an official Burning Man blog post reads.

"Are we entering a Golden Age that frees us all from mindless labour? Everything, it seems, depends on HMI, the Human-Machine Interface. In a world increasingly controlled by smart machines, who will be master and who will be the slave?

"In a world increasingly controlled by smart machines, who will be master and who will be the slave?"

This year’s Burning Man was marred by the tragic death of Aaron Joel Mitchell who ran into the one festival’s iconic fires, after breaking past several security barriers.

Sadly Mr Mitchell later died in hospital in an apparent suicide although his friends and family said he was of sound mind before he went to the festival.

In another tragic event during this year's festival, a man was struck by a pickup truck and airlifted to hospital in a critical condition. It's thought the man was asleep in his tent when it was driven over by a female driver working at the festival.

Launching in San Francisco in 1986, Burning Man festival has been running in Nevada's Black Rock Desert since 1990.

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