One of the values of artistic creation sometimes present is the visionary element, where we get a chance to experience what might take place in the future. Certainly we have already read and watched and played video games covering a full spectrum of what the future might look like with the existence of various sorts of extremely smart and capable AI.
HG Wells managed to get a number of his future visions fairly true to what actually has taken place. We have had visions all across the gamut of possible outcomes. Terminator being a grim view, Close Encounters and ET being more upbeat.
1984, and Brave New World, have been there and done that, in the sense of how bad it might get. Zardoz, a film from 1974 explores what might happen if AI and robots have helped create an elite class that doesn’t have much to do with their lives, and what ensues from that “setup”.
Her, the movie by Spike Jonze, seemed to be looking at social relationships from a very current viewpoint, and raised questions that are very much on our minds today. However, Jonze was thinking up Her nearly 20 years ago. (Her was previously discussed in a post at PSA)
Jonze conceived the idea for Her in the early 2000s after reading an article about a website that allowed for instant messaging with an artificial intelligence program.
Two more prescient films on the impact of AI and robots: Ex Machina, and Blade Runner 2049 immerse us in AI worlds that challenge our current perspectives on Human identity. But one should also include Star Wars, Star Trek, and extremely numerous other future explorations. We humans certainly don’t lack for imagination tools and it seems we can’t get enough of envisioning the future.
Which is fortuitous, because we have a great deal of adjusting to do with the advent of powerful AI.