What’s Happening: The AI researcher’s latest book argues that, when it comes to addressing problems of the future, “we” are who we’re waiting for. Our contributor Jesse Dorris weighs in.

The Download: Recently on Grindr, someone a few thousand feet away messaged saying hi handsome i am doing well and u? and someone several thousand miles away messaged saying hi you look very handsome what are you looking for? They perhaps had the same face. Your various inboxes may also be stuffed with these moments of deciding whether that stranger in your DMs is a person or a prompt, and whether you block or unlock, you’re interacting with each other in a mechanical space inextricable, apparently, from the “real” world. Borders are now porous between human and machine.

In the new book Who Are We Now? (Hat & Beard Editions), Blaise Agüera y Arcas offers ideas of what we might make of this. Who is he? I asked ChatGPT, which replied that he “is a computer scientist and entrepreneur known for his work in the fields of computer vision, AI, and augmented reality” and “worked at Microsoft for several years, where he contributed to projects such as Bing Maps and Microsoft’s augmented reality initiatives.” His self-description in the book’s text offers context: “I work on AI at a big tech company… the rapid advance of AI has forced my colleagues and I to think hard about humanity. How do we envision the future? Who are ‘we,’ anyway? Does we include collective identity groups as well as individuals? Nonhuman animals and plants? Governments and corporations? Will it soon include robots?”

To answer such questions, we have to know who’s asking. Between 2016 and 2022, Agüera y Arcas offered intimate and identifying questions—Are you left-handed? Are you bisexual?—to thousands of anonymous people. Who compiles and analyzes the results, largely staying out of the data weeds thanks to James Goggin’s elegant graphic design. The results don’t always surprise: more people identify in more-queer ways of thinking through their gender and sexuality; the more isolated one’s lifestyle, the more conservative one’s beliefs. “At some point,” he writes, “we’ll need to admit to the futility of trying to police categories like women versus men. We’re all augmented in so many ways—physically, intellectually, and societally.”

Perhaps appropriately, given who he is, Agüera y Arcas is most helpful when thinking through how robots and humans are already interacting. In a section on driverless cars, he writes that their success depends on people considering “a robotic driver a social entity deserving of respect.” We have trouble enough treating each other like that; perhaps the necessity of expanding ideas of what constitutes that ‘social entity’ can help encourage such fellow-feeling. And while anyone too much online might have doubts at our capacity for this kind of change, ChatGPT thinks otherwise. At the end of its description of Agüera y Arcas, after all, it reminds us “that information about individuals may change over time.” Instead of wondering why only spambots flirt with us, then, we might consider what we’re looking for from each other anyway.

In Their Own Words: “This is the situation we live in today: alienation,” Agüera y Arcas writes in Who Are We Now? “It implies that the human citizen or laborer was already being treated like a non-person—that is, like a machine. Conversely, we’re in the untenable position of ‘othering’ the machine because we were already in the untenable position of ‘othering’ each other.”

Surface Says: Kraftwerk was right: We are the robots.

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For Freedoms has often made waves for its large-scale, public-facing commissions. This year, the artist-run organization is taking that high-octane energy to Untitled at Miami Art Week. There, the fair’s podcast lounge will be decked out with a limited number of signed artist prints commissioned by For Freedoms from April Bey, Petra Cortright, Christine Sun Kim, and Hana Ward. Each print is signed, numbered, hand-embellished, and available for Surface readers in advance of the fair.

The design duo Paola Vella and Ellen Bernhardt have long looked to architecture as inspiration for their studio Bernhardt & Vella’s elegant furnishings. They’ve now made the connection explicit in a new project with another pair of dynamos—photographers Lea Anouchinksy and Alberto Carlo Macchi—that situates their work in some of Milan’s most exceptional entryways.

“The project came out of a desire to tell a story connecting some of the most identitary products we’ve created over the years,” Vella and Bernhardt tell Surface, “with some of our architectural and aesthetic reference points.” And so Enrico Zanoni’s 1889 palazzo Casa Zanoni, in Corso Monforte, becomes in these photographs an art nouveau home in which Bernhardt & Vella’s Snake sofa for Rugiano seems to affectionately slither around the studio’s Crema Marfil marble table Scalea, made for Arflex.

A second setting, this time an entryway in Maggiolina, juxtaposes their cipollino marble Rock table and softly undulating Fandango armchair, both for Rugiano, with a vibrant installation of warm wood paneling. “The dialogue between the products and entrance halls is very much evident in the last palazzo as well,” they say. The 1920s palazzo boasts rhomboidal motifs across ceilings and walls. “They create a continuum with the Origami bath collection designed for ex.t,” they say—ample evidence that in design as in collaborations, more is so often more.

A sense of romantic grandeur pervades the work of Conie Vallese, the Argentine designer and sculptor whose world-spanning practice crystallizes beauty in tangible form. She’s quickly making a name for herself with delicate, one-of-a-kind pieces where the maker’s hand is evident—Gothic-inspired sterling silver jewelry and cutlery collections with Orit Elhanati, cast bronze chairs adorned with sculpted flowers, and other nature-inspired works whose simplicity and elegance give us space to feel.

Our weekly scoop on industry players moving onwards and upwards.

Givenchy and creative director Matthew Williams, who brought an edgy transformation to the French fashion house in 2020, are parting ways. Williams, best known for his streetwear label 1017 Alyx 9SM, was an unconventional choice for Givenchy, but he aimed to redefine the brand’s image after the departure of Riccardo Tisci. While his work received mixed reviews and may not have met exceptional sales, Williams is leaving on a high note with well-received recent collections. He plans to focus on developing his own brand. Givenchy’s studio teams will oversee upcoming collections until a new creative director is announced.

In other people news, Powerhouse Arts is continuing its growth trajectory with the addition of 12 new team members since opening in May. Among the hires are Brittni Collins as Director of Public Art and Karyn Williams as VP of Programs. Public Art Fund also announced new leadership appointments: Stephanie Adams as Deputy Director for External Affairs and Karyn Olivier and Allison Weiner as members of its board of directors.

Last week, the global architecture studio celebrated its 15th anniversary with a swaggering cocktail party inside one of Manhattan’s most distinguished private clubs. There, the firm’s principals gathered friends and colleagues for a night of champagne and bites to fête the firm’s thriving practice. Guests also toasted the publication of Renewing the Dream: The Mobility Revolution and the Future of Los Angeles, a new Rizzoli book informed by the firm’s vast body of research into the sheer amount of space taken up by parking lots in Los Angeles.

When was it? Nov. 30

Where was it? New York City

Who was there? Molly Ringwald, Gregg Pasquarelli, James Sanders, Griffin Dunne, James Hickerson, Matthew Stephenson, Krista Ninivaggi, David Brown, and more.

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Bend Goods is a Los Angeles furniture design and manufacturing company committed to designing innovative and playful products. Founded in 2010 by Gaurav Nanda, Bend was derived from Nanda’s passion for making functional yet sculptural objects. Inspired by the midcentury era, the line includes pieces made of wire, upholstery, and wood.

Surface Says: We love how Bend Goods taps serious historical references to inspire their vibrant, colorful collection. We can’t help but admire the levity that permeates their wide array of pieces.

Longevity drugs for four-legged friends are cautiously moving closer to reality.

The state of Indiana has a shockingly robust collection of sex artifacts.

Yo-Yo Ma, a trans Indigenous musician, and a drag queen sing about the climate.

Madonna mounts a piece of political theater about the AIDS crisis on tour.