Research Information System
in: New Approaches in Media and Communication, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Ayhan, Editor, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., Berlin, pp.61-79, 2019
The developments in Artificial Intelligence
promise a world where we’ll be accustomed to an ongoing relationship with
machines, exempt from the boundaries of space and time. Advancements in AI are
culminating in robots, computers and systems capable of understanding more
languages, meanings and feelings, and acting in a human-like way. While these
advancements are met with general enthusiasm, they also raise concerns. This
paper discusses the representations of fears, hopes and uncertainty about the
technological scenarios and digital culture in popular sci-fi movies. Starting
from an overview of the latest advancements in AI research and industry, the
paper focuses on films such as Her (Spike
Jonze, 2013), Transcendence (Wally
Pfister, 2014) and Ex-Machina (Alex
Garland, 2014) produced in the recent years,
exploring possible futures of the man-machine/AI relationship, singling
out some recurring elements that can describe the general sentiment about the
coming future: questioning human beings’ capacity of self-determination;
questioning the idea of the uniqueness of humans; and the replacement of humans
in interpersonal and private relationships.