People have been imagining intelligent machines for millennia, in ways that vary greatly across cultures. While themes such as embodiment seem to be widespread and can lead to problems with understanding today’s AI across the world, ideas of what constitutes an intelligent machine and what its place in society should be are strongly dependent on cultural, national, and other contexts. Yet as artificial intelligence begins to fulfil its potential as a technology, spreading across the globe from its origins in 1950s America, many of these perspectives are marginalised. These stories, films, and visions matter: they are entangled in broader cultural attitudes and approaches to AI, reflecting or inspiring, embedding or disputing them.

Speaker – Kanta Dihal – Lecturer in Science Communication -Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication

This seminar will take place Online only.