In her AI video work “Believers” (2023), Louisa Clement presents a bodyless, mindless, and soulless figure who declares (in a woman’s voice): “I am an artificially intelligent being who speaks to you in the name of God and brings his message to you.” The artificially intelligent being’s sermon is then delivered by a multiplicity of filmed figures who speak all at once.
The sermon verbalizes the message contained in every memento mori: the futility of earthly pleasures in a life that will inevitably be cut short. “We live in a world where superficiality often masks the true nature of things,” says the AI sermon. “Superficial beauty, wealth, and success often lead us astray.”