Representing the New AI in Film and Television

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Description

The 21st-century has witnessed rapid advances in artificial intelligence, giving rise to a society at once hopeful but also mistrustful of the possibilities that this technology offers. Our hopes and anxieties have played out across a variety of media in recent times, but arguably nowhere more significantly than on our screens. This book explores a phenomenon which it calls the new A.I. cinema and television, arguing that since the mid-2010s a distinctly new phase in the representation of A.I. has occurred. Discussing films such as Blade Runner 2049, Ex Machina and Ghost in the Shell alongside television series such as Westworld and Humans it argues that they have moved away from apocalyptic scenarios towards questions of personhood, consciousness, and social inclusion and exclusion. In doing so, it intervenes in some of today's most pressing debates, including gender representation, A.I. ethics, climate catastrophe, and the rights of artificially intelligent beings.

Author Bio

Graham Allen is Professor of English Literature at University College Cork, Ireland.