Tokyo — Japanese-British artist and designer Hiromi Ozaki, widely known as Sputniko!, has launched a striking new installation titled Tech Bro Debates Humanity. The work uses artificial intelligence to challenge Silicon Valley culture and the growing dominance of algorithms in shaping society.
The piece features six AI-generated avatars—modeled on Ozaki’s own image and voice—designed to embody stereotypical “tech bros.” On screen, they debate weighty issues such as democracy, free will, and the influence of technology. At one point, an avatar bluntly states: “It’s not really about votes anymore, it’s about who’s controlling the algorithms.”
Sputniko! first rose to prominence as a technology optimist. A graduate of Imperial College London in math and computer science, she later directed a lab at MIT Media Lab, producing futuristic projects about gender and technology. Her latest works, however, reflect a shift toward questioning and critiquing technology’s cultural power.
The new installation is accompanied by two companion pieces: one using drones to detect four-leaf clovers, and another simulating rainbow-colored clouds. Both explore whether AI’s obsession with efficiency risks erasing life’s rare and unpredictable moments.
Despite her critical lens, Ozaki remains connected to technology in practice. She co-founded Cradle, a Japanese healthcare startup offering virtual consultations, showing her dual role as both critic and creator in the digital space.
Tech Bro Debates Humanity will debut at the Ars Electronica Festival in Austria this September before moving to The Art Gallery at Brooklyn College in New York, where it will run for three months.
With this exhibition, Sputniko! is pushing audiences to confront the uncomfortable question: as AI becomes more deeply woven into society, who really decides humanity’s future—the people, or the algorithms?