Grayson Perry: ‘I attended an Elon Musk convention – he’s a troubled soul’

Grayson Perry has seen the future, so what does it hold? (Picture: Swan Films) In Grayson Perry’s new documentary, he meets giddy newlywed Andrea, who recently tied the knot with Edward. ‘The way he comforts me is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before – like I was seen for all that I am and loved anyway,’ she says. ‘I wake up every morning so happy to talk to him, to share everything with him.’ She paints a picture of the marital bliss you see in movies, but there’s a catch. When Grayson asks to see a photo, Andrea shows him images from her virtual wedding with her virtual husband. She’s wearing a simple satin gown, and Edward is in a grey suit with a pink tie. ‘He looked absolutely beautiful,’ Andrea says, with genuine affection. Grayson Perry Has Seen the Future is the title of the Turner Prize-winning potter’s new documentary on Channel 4. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Andrea’s unconventional marriage is among a host of remarkable examples of AI and robotics shaping our tomorrow. Whether we like it or not, the world is evolving into its next stage, and we can either embrace it or fear it. What’s becoming abundantly clear, though, is that we can’t ignore it. Across two episodes, Perry travels to Silicon Valley to explore both the horror and hope of an AI future. At one end of the scale, you have Andrea, whom the artist tells Metro is ‘delicate and vulnerable’. ‘AI boosts her self-esteem, makes her feel good. But Edward calls her “mon chérie” – I’d probably tune that out,’ he laughs. At the other end, there’s the very real threat that AI will take our jobs, dictate our minds, and the cult-like following of Elon Musk continues to expand. ‘Elon Musk is a troubling soul. He’s obviously a brilliant engineer, but he’s got other flaws.’ (Picture: Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images) During his travels, Perry attends the ‘X Takeover’, the annual celebration of all things Musk, showcasing the latest doom-laden technology you’d find in the Batcave, and is adored by thousands of followers who worship at the church of Tesla. It’s an unsettling watch, listening to fans in awe of an innovator they look up to as a saviour whose vision for the future only excites them. Still, Perry’s optimism can’t be deterred. ‘They were fun people, very diverse,’ he says. ‘It was very American, very optimistic about the future, unquestioning about the technological future, because they live in a world that doesn’t have a lot of old stuff. ‘Europe is likely to become a Disneyland of the olden days, so they had this sort of optimism about the future and technology. But Elon Musk is a troubling soul. He’s obviously a brilliant engineer, but he’s got other flaws.’ The show explores how AI and robotics are shaping our tomorrow (Picture: Swan Films) Musk doesn’t appear in the series, but many others spearheading the future of AI do. The movement is largely led by nerdy men with a god complex. Some are driven by the possibility of changing the world for the better, others by protecting it, while inevitably there are those aware of – and enjoying – the financial rewards. Perry interviews three women in this intensely masculine field (only 15% of tech leaders are women), who have all dated their fair share of ‘tech bros’ and unanimously agree there is a commonality of neurodiversity among the giants of AI. ‘I was on a date with a guy, we got drunk, and he was like, “Now that we’re drunk, let’s do some maths problems,”’ one tells him. It’s very much an exploration of the humanity of AI. The show offers a balanced take on the relationship between humanity and AI (Picture: Swan Films) Musk might be the face of the future, but it’s comforting to hear from less self-publicising figures achieving remarkable things, such as the roboticist who is using AI to help children develop social skills, and the founder of Claude, a more moralistic alternative to ChatGPT, who is so convincingly hopeful it moves Perry to tears. ‘I thought being optimistic would be more cheeky, in a way,’ says Perry. So now that Perry’s seen the future, how would he sum it up? ‘The future is human. It can’t be anything else, because what point is anything unless it’s for us? People go on about saving the planet, and I always go, “The planet will look after itself. It’s us that die out.” ‘So the future is human. AI is oversold to a certain extent. It’s very good at objective intelligence, but it doesn’t have a body, and it doesn’t have a kind of emotional intelligence, so to speak.’ Cheekiness has steered much of Perry’s career. Even when he was knighted in 2023, he acknowledged – or seems to have hoped – it would ‘wind people up’. I asked him if he thought it did. AI has objective intelligence, but it doesn’t have emotional intelligence (Picture: Swan Films) ‘Probably only in my head. I do a lot of things because I think it will p*ss somebody off. I have a vision of the intellectual, high-culture person who’s a bit of a snob and probably finds me a bit of a populist, and dislikes me for that. ‘When I got the Reith Lectures for the BBC, I don’t tend to look at reviews, but somebody told me there were a few academics on Twitter really p*ssed off I got that gig, and I thought, “good”.’ The following year, he was arguably the most unexpected reveal ever on ITV’s reality TV show The Masked Singer, where he performed in disguise as Kingfisher. His motivation was to challenge the snobbery of art. ‘Obviously, I want things to be a success, but the basis of my whole career, especially in TV, is to make difficult ideas accessible, because if I enjoy something, I think other people will like the same thing.’ Perry has always cut an eccentric figure (Picture: by Karwai Tang/WireImage) There has always been a playful eccentricity to Perry. Pete Davidson’s joke about his daughter isn’t edgy or funny – it’s sickening Horrifying moment Chris Moyles admits offer to take 15-year-old singer’s virginity Kerry Katona taken to hospital after daughter noticed 'her face wasn’t right’ From his refreshingly nonchalant penchant for wearing dresses and cartoonish make-up – often mistaken for an alter ego (‘It’s not, it’s just me in a dress, mate – deal with it’) – to his jovial spirit when exploring hard-hitting subjects in his documentaries, there’s a gentle mischief at the heart of everything he does. I wonder if there’s anything he feels increasingly passionate about as he gets older, and it makes sense that his answer is: ‘That humour is the most important thing. Having fun, that’s something I care about more these days. ‘I haven’t bought into what I would call the performative seriousness of high culture.’ Grayson Perry’s See The Future airs Wednesday at 9pm on Channel 4. Got a story? 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