AI in the Movies

Abstract

<italic>AI in the Movies</italic> analyses film representations of artificial intelligence from their first emergence in the 1950s up to 2020. These fictional representations shed light on human attitudes to AI: how we think about it and understand it, what excites and terrifies us about it, and how it helps us to understand our relationships with technology and the lines we draw between the biological, mechanical and digital. The strong or general artificial intelligences analysed in this book take different forms: some are digital AIs, some robot AIs, some move between material and digital forms. Some are indistinguishable from humans, and some have no material existence at all. The book identifies the aspects of AI science that fascinate filmmakers and outlines the key themes and tropes in AI film, including parent-child relationships, the female robot, human-AI doubles, parallels and hybrids, AI death and mortality, and more. Chapters are arranged chronologically by decade, allowing socio-cultural factors that impact on the representation of artificial intelligence to be made visible, such as the Cold War, the Internet, gaming culture, smart technology and social media. Thematic strands are identified that reappear, more developed and more nuanced, in later chapters. Analysis of these representations demonstrates filmmakers eroding the division between human and AI, by presenting character doubles, narrative parallels and eventually, identities in which the biological and artificial overlap and intersect in new hybrid forms.