Effing Robots: How I Taught AI To Stop Worrying and Love Humans is self-confessed sci-fi nerd Nicol Cabe’s look at the way humans interact with artificial intelligence online, and in turn, how they interact with humans. Just as informative as entertaining, there’s a good chance you will walk away from this show and contemplate whether your online habits also make you a target of bots.

Working with an almost cabaret-like set up of long tables and chairs in the Ballroom of the Rob Roy Hotel, Cabe begins her show by detailing the personal messages she received from assumed bots through online messaging apps. What follows is a mix of personal stories gained from Cabe’s experiences with AI apps as well as a dive into the general world of AI and where it could all lead. Weaved throughout this were some brief performance pieces which fitted cleverly with the tone of the show, as well as some critiquing on where all this technology could lead.

There is a lot of online technology discussed throughout Effing Robots that I was certainly not aware of, but Cabe is clearly very knowledgeable and passionate about AI and at no point did she talk down to the audience when explaining anything. The room set up is quite large, but I found that Cabe’s skill at being on the same level with her audience when interacting was a strength that made the size of the room obsolete. Some of the discussion around our general online presence, as well as the other communities that use the internet for their own good or bad purposes, certainly made for a few moments of self-reflection of my own habits, as well as perhaps a faint desire to maybe try one of the AI apps she had discussed.

Effing Robots: How I Taught AI To Stop Worrying and Love Humans is a really interesting deep-dive into the world of AI, with Nicol Cabe a knowledgeable and passionate navigator into what is sometimes a murky, unsettling world. If you are looking for a discussion into the online AI world of today and tomorrow, as well as perhaps some insight into your own online habits, this is definitely the show for you.

4 Stars

Effing Robots: How I Taught AI To Stop Worrying and Love Humans is on until Wednesday the 20th of February. Buy tickets HERE.

By Tania Nicholas