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Turkish media artist Refik Anadol addresses climate change with AI-driven installation at Davos

"This artwork focuses hundreds of billions images of underwater flora and fauna to see is there's any chance to reconstruct what we lost in ecosystems," Turkish media artist Refik Anadol told Anadolu Agency.

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Turkish media artist Refik Anadol addresses climate change with AI-driven installation at Davos

One of the pioneers of the aesthetics of "data painting,' world-famous Turkish media artist Refik Anadol created a new site-specific installation at Davos, aiming to address climate change, one of the biggest problems facing humanity.

The data sculpture, which he called "Artificial Realities: Coral," is based on nearly 1 billion images of coral that have been processed with machine learning classification models.

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Turkish media artist Refik Anadol addresses climate change with AI-driven installation at Davos

It connects a digital ecosystem of data and a natural environment brimming with countless living ecosystems, aiming to use the potential of both the Metaverse and blockchain economies to alleviate global climate change issues.

"This artwork focuses hundreds of billions images of underwater flora and fauna to see is there's any chance to reconstruct what we lost in ecosystems," the artist told Anadolu.

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Turkish media artist Refik Anadol addresses climate change with AI-driven installation at Davos

"Generative artificial intelligence (AI) reconstructs nearly (entirely) realistic creatures, outputs that hopefully one day can be used underwater to create an ecosystem," he explained.

"Unfortunately, due to climate change, we lost a majority of our coral and the question at the forum is how we can use the arts and science and technology to reconstruct what's been lost."

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Turkish media artist Refik Anadol addresses climate change with AI-driven installation at Davos

Stating that the the World Economic Forum (WEF) attaches importance to the creative artificial intelligence techniques to address issues like climate change, Anadol said he used cutting-edge algorithms in the project, "probably the most complex artificial intelligence in the world in this field."

"Our goal was to answer the question of what we can do to recover the value of the first damaged assets, like coral. We wanted to try to understand this not just in the physical world, but also in the Metaverse. In this sense, we tried to produce coral very close to reality."

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Turkish media artist Refik Anadol addresses climate change with AI-driven installation at Davos

"We've transformed this activity into an artistic work, and we've been able to create the sound we hear, the visuals we see and, in addition, the smell -- the AI-based artificial ocean scent," he added.

"I think this is the first time a Turkish artist is sharing work on this platform and on this scale. I'm very proud."

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Turkish media artist Refik Anadol addresses climate change with AI-driven installation at Davos

The WEF kicked off on Monday in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, with heads of state and business leaders focusing on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and economic instability amid climate change.

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Turkish media artist Refik Anadol addresses climate change with AI-driven installation at Davos

Under the theme of Cooperation in a Fragmented World, names shaping global politics and the business world are participating in the forum.

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Turkish media artist Refik Anadol addresses climate change with AI-driven installation at Davos

The meeting will also see the attendance of 56 finance ministers, 19 central bank heads, 30 trade ministers, and 35 foreign ministers.

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Turkish media artist Refik Anadol addresses climate change with AI-driven installation at Davos

It will bring together more than 2,700 leaders from 130 countries, including 50 heads of state and government, as multiple crises deepen divisions and fragment the geopolitical landscape.

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Turkish media artist Refik Anadol addresses climate change with AI-driven installation at Davos

This year will also see the highest-ever business participation at Davos, with more than 1,500 leaders from 700 organizations.