Cambridge, MA, U.S.
A Moss-Controlled AI Wearable for Resource-Aware Interaction
09.2025 - 12.2025
Critical Matter Group, MIT Media Lab
- CHI 2026 Interactive Demos
- MAS.S60 Critical Matter: Emotive Design from Fashion to Urban Scale
Collaborator :
Saetbyeol Leeyouk, Sophia Liao
Role:
Concept Development, Fuctional Prototype, Garment Design, Final Prorotype, Digital Fabricatin, Bio-material Development, Phtography, Filming
Instructor:
Behnaz Farahi
# Human-Computer Interaction
# Sustainable AI
# More-than-Human
# Wearable Design
# Bio-Material
# Digital Fabrication
Project Description
Cry for AI is a nature-controlled AI device that makes the hidden costs of everyday AI use tangible. Each AI request relies on finite resources such as cooling water, electricity, and human labor, yet these dependencies usually remain invisible at the interface.
In this project, a living patch of moss takes on an active role in regulating access to AI. Users interact with the system through voice-controlled modes, each linked to a predefined resource budget. As the moss gradually dehydrates, the system’s behavior shifts from full responses to limited output and eventually to refusal. When dehydration passes a threshold, AI access is locked until the moss is rehydrated through a tear-activated sensor.
By tying AI availability to the condition of a living organism, Cry for AI reframes AI as something materially constrained. Sustainability becomes an embodied, moment-to-moment experience shaped by a feedback loop between human behavior, artificial intelligence, and a living system.