SHDP’s short documentary film on AI in Sci-Fi Film and Literature, the subject of a conference at Jesus College, Cambridge. AI experts, Sci-Fi authors and film makers discuss how Sci-Fi addresses the big questions posed by AI, and the roles both the AI and Sci-Fi communities can play in communicating and discussing the hopes and fears of Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence in Sci Fi Film and Literature

Science Fiction film and literary fictions have been a forum for the drama of ideas that circulate around AI and its future, not least important ethical questions. At many stages we find fiction in all its forms driving ideas in AI and vice-versa. Crucially, we find the relationship between AI developments and our hopes, fears and ambitions, worked out imaginatively through a variety of stories. In this short film, Artificial Intelligence experts, Science Fiction (SF) authors, technology experts, and scholars of literature discuss these fascinating ideas and ask: what can we learn about ourselves in relation to AI by exploring these narratives?

This film is based on ideas discussed at the Science & Human Dimension Project’s (SHDP) AI and the Future of Humanity Project conference ‘AI in Sci Fi Film and Literature’ at Jesus College, Cambridge. We are grateful to Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF) for their funding of this project. This short film was made by SHDP in collaboration with Colin Ramsay of Little Dragon Films.