‘There Points a Small Lie’- The AI Fountain

AI in Action

Patricia McAlernon

“We must be like the fountain or spring that is continually emptying itself of all that it has and is continually being refilled from an invisible source”

- Shoghi Effendi, The Guardian of the Baha’i Faith

Think of AI as a data fountain, similar to a water fountain with data feeding into it instead of water. An AI model is composed of three layers, an input layer, a hidden layer (a black box) and an output layer. The input layer is made up of data which is presented to the hidden layer where the mathematics or algorithms are performed which then generates an output layer which contains the solution, answer or result.

In a previous article ‘Spiritual, Natural and Artificial Intelligence’ I distinguished between three different types of intelligence. The quality of our spiritual intelligence and the output of Artificial Intelligence is critically dependent on the quality of our human attributes and computerised input data respectively. The effort you put into your own personal fountain (your spiritual life) is projected onto a wall which shows the world who you really are as a person. In Artificial Intelligence, the better the quality of the data used to train an AI model the less hallucinations or errors it will produce.

The same applies to your spiritual intelligence or spiritual life which needs to grow in clear waters to be elevated. In a previous article I referred to “AI Slop” and the quality of the output of AI models such as ChatGPT and Claude.

We are living in times of murky AI waters which we need to learn to navigate and to grow like a lotus flower which looks towards the light to survive.

In January this year we attended Emily McGardle’s exhibition in the Townhall Art Centre, Cavan. Her artwork, composed of cartoon-like images and sculptures, were inspirational.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to discuss with Emily the use of AI to generate images which could be 3D printed in different materials ranging from silicon to wood filament.

AI software in conjunction with a 3D printer is capable of using images as input data to a ‘hidden layer’ (the engineered equipment) to produce output data in the form of a sculpture similar to Emily’s ‘Eye-bitten’ sculpture made in silicon but which was created using her own hands.

I was pleased to hear Emily was considering embracing 3D printing and AI technology in her future artwork.

Last month we attended ‘The Art of Piano’ St Columb’s Hall Concerto Award 2026 at Hillsborough Castle. We were there to support Rowel Friers, the grandson of the Northern Ireland cartoonist of the same name.

Emily’s artwork I viewed the previous month in Cavan reminded me of Rowels’s approach to art which used cartoon drawings to portray humour in NI politics using well known politicians. In the surroundings of a mystical castle, Rowel, famous in his own right, aged just 23, won the piano competition that evening in the Throne Room of the royal residence in Northern Ireland.

It was the second occasion we had witnessed him performing and winning the competition. On both occasions he passionately produced a musical performance which was haunting, ghostly and spiritual. His magical fingers provided the input data to a magnificent Yamaha CFX concert grand piano (the hidden layer) to produce output data in the form of delightful music. The process of producing music using human fingers and a musical instrument was far from how AI can nowadays be used to generate music.

However, it must be noted, Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony No. 8 was completed using AI to the satisfaction of some listeners and was far from artificial.