Allegory of the AI revisits Plato’s Cave through the lens of generative art and Artificial Intelligence. Each work begins with a simple, randomly selected fact, small and almost invisible, that serves as the object in the cave. From this factual seed, the system produces an enlarged, dramatic headline that appears as its shadow. These AI generated reinterpretations are intentionally absurd, echoing the logics of sensationalism, misinformation, and algorithmic distortion.

The piece reflects on how real events can cast long digital shadows, reshaped into humorous, tabloid-like hallucinations. What appears playful at first quickly becomes revealing, acting as a mirror of how current systems amplify, twist, and reinvent our perception of truth.

Beyond the still image, a live, chatbot interface unfolds. In this interactive version, each new variation is generated in real time, with its own tone and visual treatment. Viewers are invited to explore, regenerate, and share these shifting narratives, moving from passive observation to an active engagement with truth, repetition, and digital authorship.

Allegory of the AI asks viewers to consider our own readiness to accept those shadows as reality. It proposes a moment of pause and a renewed awareness of the fragile balance between critical thought, media literacy, free press, and the expanding influence of artificial intelligence and social networks.

Technical note: The work uses a fine tuned LLM model (SmolLM2-135M-Instruct), quantized for local performance via transformers.js. The visual composition is generated in real time using canvas, opentype.js and chroma.js.

Controls:

- Append &scale=2 (or other number) for higher quality
- Append &footer=false to hide footer text

Libraries and fonts used:

- opentype.js
- transformers.js
- chroma.js
- StackBlur
- Fonts: Playfair Display, Raleway, Stack Sans Notch, Noto Serif, Space Grotesk, EB Garamond, Fira Code
- SmolLM2-135M-Instruct model