Deutsche Telekom and the Kunstmuseum Bonn have announced the recipient of the 2025 Human AI Art Award. French artist and filmmaker Nicolas Gourault has been honored for his work “Unknown Label” (2023), which explores the lives of online microworkers, also known as clickworkers, from the Global South. These workers are responsible for recreating and categorizing images used in training self-driving cars.
The award ceremony is scheduled for September 21, 2025, coinciding with the opening of a two-month exhibition at the Human AI Art Space located in front of the Kunstmuseum Bonn. The exhibition will feature Gourault’s work as a site-specific three-channel video installation.
Gourault expressed his gratitude for receiving the award, stating: “It’s a great joy and honor to receive this award given by a remarkable jury among so many high-profile submissions. I believe it’s important to remember the valuable human labor and inequalities at the heart of the AI hype we’re living through, and to advocate for fair working conditions.” He added that he hopes “this award and the exhibition will be an opportunity to share the work with a wide audience.”
Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, commented on their commitment to ethical approaches in artificial intelligence: “New technologies influence our lives and shape our interactions. Therefore, at Deutsche Telekom, we are committed to an ethical approach to artificial intelligence and are examining its social impact.”
Prof. Dr. Stephan Berg, Director of Kunstmuseum Bonn, emphasized the importance of artistic exploration in understanding artificial intelligence: “The speed at which new developments in the field of artificial intelligence are entering our lives is breathtaking… That’s why I’m delighted that we can offer a platform for artistic exploration of artificial intelligence in collaboration with Telekom.”
Nicolas Gourault was nominated by Dr. Inke Arns from Hartware Medienkunstverein (HMKV) in Dortmund. The jury comprised Ed Atkins, Prof. Dr. Stephan Berg, Prof. Sarah Cook, Guillaume Désanges, and Antje Hundhausen.
The Human AI Art Award was launched jointly by Deutsche Telekom and Kunstmuseum Bonn in 2024 to recognize artists working at the intersection of fine art and technology.
