Artificial Intelligence is a series of albums by Warp Records released from 1992–1994 to exhibit the capabilities and sounds of electronic music. Warp described the new music as "electronic listening music" to clarify that it was meant more for the mind than the body. The sleevenote on the 1992 compilation said "Are you sitting comfortably? Artificial Intelligence is for long journeys, quiet nights and club drowsy dawns. Listen with an open mind." The series is remarkable for its inclusion of groups and individuals who would later become leaders in modern electronic music, techno, and ambient, such as Alex Paterson, Plaid, Richard D. James, Richie Hawtin, and Autechre. Every album in the series, aside from Dimension Intrusion, has its name enclosed in parentheses on its cover.
Background
When asked about the series in a 2016 interview with online electronic music journal Resident Advisor, Sean Booth of Autechre said that,
I dunno, I didn't come up with Artificial Intelligence. You'd have to ask Rob Mitchell and he's not around any more! I think it was a joke, really. There was a definite tongue-in-cheek thing going on with the AI series initially, everyone knew it was a bit silly. But we were enjoying doing it. Thing is, almost all the artists on that first AI compilation are just like us, they were regular kids, they're not intelligent people particularly. Aphex Twin|Richard is a fucking blagger, Richie Hawtin too... I don't know how the fuck he gets away with the things he does! Alex Paterson, people like that, they're not known for being intellectually powerful, they're just fucking good musicians.
Releases
The original AI series consisted of the following albums, listed in order of release:
Each of the albums was released on vinyl, cassette and CD; each of the artist albums was also released on limited edition coloured or transparent vinyl. A video release, entitled , was also released for the series. Finally, each release except Ginger was distributed in the United States by TVT/Wax Trax! Records.
