Until the end of the month, the Cité des Sciences in Paris is hosting a major exhibition entirely dedicated to artificial intelligence. It's an opportunity to better understand a technology that is omnipresent in daily life, but still largely misunderstood in terms of its operation and effects.
An immersion to understand the basics of AI
Set against a black and white backdrop, the exhibition begins by tracing the origins of AI. From medieval automata to the first logic machines of the 20th century, the exhibition demonstrates that the idea of artificial intelligence predates our virtual assistants. It then details the fundamental principles underpinning current systems, such as machine learning and large-scale image and data processing.
Interactive devices allow users to experience what symbolic AI does—AI that follows precise rules or generative AI, such as models capable of creating images or texts. In particular, they reveal how a machine learns to recognize an object: not by understanding it, but by analyzing millions of examples.
The workings of algorithms, the limitations of automatic recognition, and the difficulty of verifying the reliability of a model's response are all points addressed in this first part. The aim is to demystify a technology often perceived as magical or unsettling, by bringing it back to its concrete mechanisms.
A powerful tool with multiple effects
The second half of the exhibition focuses on the practical uses of AI and the transformations it is bringing about in numerous fields. Environment, medicine, transport, industry, and education: in each sector, interactive displays illustrate both the promises and the risks.
Visitors can measure the carbon footprint of these technologies, test AI-assisted natural disaster scenarios, or simulate the impact of automation on the job market. The exhibition also explores how these technologies influence artistic creation, online content, and forms of entertainment.
Originally conceived by Le Quai des savoirs in Toulouse, the exhibition has been adapted for Paris and supplemented with installations designed for a family audience. Accessible from the age of 9, it aims to make an often complex subject understandable, without taking sides, but by encouraging everyone to question the tools they use.
