Throughout the summer and fall of 2019, the Berggruen Institute Transformations of the Human (ToftH) Program focused on building new partnerships and fellowships for its global AI work whilst the Program’s artist fellows flourished on the international art scene allowing TofTH ideas to take center stage in dialogue about contemporary issues.
• ToftH has announced a new partnership and grant with the Diverse Intelligences Initiative of the Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF), to generously support the work of Berggruen Institute research fellows in the field of AI. Conversations with TWCF President Andrew Serazin and Principal Advisor Pranab Das have resulted in ongoing explorations of research in both AI and biotechnologies.
• A dynamic series of events around the philosophical and artistic investigation of AI and biotechnology will be presented with the Serpentine Galleries in London, co-curated by Lucia Pietroiusti and Kay Watson and the ToftH team. Stay tuned for more information.

• Transformations of the Human Director, Tobias Rees, was chosen as a Rockefeller Foundation Resident to take part in the Foundation’s “A Month of AI” at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center on Lake Como. While there, Rees participated along with Berggruen Institute VP of Programs Nils Gilman in working group meetings organized by the Rockefeller Foundation and Element AI with industry leaders, UN and EU officials, and government representatives.
• The ToftH program expanded its work with Chief Scientist at Facebook AI Research (FAIR) and co-winner of the 2019 Turing Award, Yann LeCun, and secured a new collaboration with Google X and their project lead of robotics, Hans Peter Brondmo. Further details are forthcoming.
• Artist fellows Anicka Yi and Kahlil Joseph were among a select group of American artists chosen to participate in the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019.
• Artist fellow Agnieszka Kurant won the $100,000 Frontier Art Prize and participated in the 18th Istanbul Art Biennial, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, member of a ToftH working group co-organized with Eoin Brodie from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. As one of the opening talks at the Istanbul Biennial, Rees and Kurant presented their work and its symbiotic relationship.

• Together with artist fellow Anicka Yi, Tobias Rees gave a talk on dialogue & collaboration between artistic and scientific communities at the Royal College of Art in London, organized by the Gaia Art Foundation and moderated by Ralph Rugoff, curator of the 2019 Venice Biennale.