Deviation Game

A game in which you must draw things in a way humans can understand but AI can’t

2022 - 2024 —  Made with Playfool (Saki Maruyama & Daniel Coppen)

Deviation Game is a game-based experiment exploring the human potential to create beyond the knowledge of AI models. In this game, players must draw prompts like “cat” or “democracy” in a way that fellow humans can recognize—but an image recognition AI model can’t. If at least one human guesses correctly and the AI does not, humans win; if the AI guesses correctly, humans lose. After each game, participants decide whether their drawing can be used for AI training or be deleted, influencing how the model evolves. 

Inspired by the Imitation Game (1950) proposed by Alan Turing—later expanded as the Turing test—the Deviation Game inverses the premise. Instead of using AI to imitate humans, this project challenges humans to deviate from established patterns within AI models, positioning AI as a collaborative force that enhances, rather than replaces, human creativity. 

とあるお題の絵を、AIにはわからないけど、人間にはわかるように描くゲーム。圧倒的な発達を遂げた現在のAI(人工知能)の分野は、画像生成や文章執筆など人間の一部の知的活動をほぼ完璧に「模倣(Imitation)」できるようになってきました。このように人による表現を容易に再生産できるAIの台頭は多くの可能性に満ちていると同時に、創作を生業にするひとからは自らの仕事が奪われてしまうと強い反発を招いています。このプロジェクトではコンピューター科学の父と呼ばれる、アラン・チューリングのイミテーションゲーム(1950)を参照したデヴィエーションゲーム (Deviation Game)を提案します。過去の模倣が得意なAIを使って何かを生成するのではなく、その表現が過去に存在したかどうかをAIに識別させることで、過去から逸脱した表現の可能性を探ります。

website : https://deviationgame.com

The drawer draws a prompt in a way the AI does not understand

The guesser tries to guess before the AI does

AI guessed the prompt "Death" first before the humans did.

The drawings get printed in the exhibition space

Our own prejudices reflected through AI

The drawings are mapped using a statistical method called t-SNE. In this method, pictures that are deemed similar by the AI are placed closer together,while those that are identified as having greater differences are placed further apart. Through drawing pictures and mapping them out in this way, we are able to visualise our internal images that may lead to prejudices (biases) held by ourselves and the groups around us.

Project Details

Project by : 
Tomo Kihara + Playfool (Daniel Coppen & Saki Maruyama)

Credits  <2023 - 2025>

Engineering: Kye Shimizu, Jasper Stephenson
Sound Design: Plot Generica
Logo: Yu Miyama
Funding Support: UK Games Fund

Credits <2022 - 2023>

Technical Collaborator: Kye Shimizu (N sketch) / Daiki Hashimoto (N sketch) / Hidemaro Fujinami (N sketch)
Sound Design: Plot Generica
Textile Support: Studio Onder de Linde
Graphic Design: Taeko Isu / Chika Yamaguchi
Photography: Aya Kawachi / Tada (YUKAI)
Videography: Kumi Oda
Funding Support:
Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT], Creative Industries Fund NL