Artificial intelligence in fiction

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a common topic of science fiction. Science fiction sometimes emphasizes the dangers of artificial intelligence, and sometimes its positive potential.

The general discussion of the use of artificial intelligence as a theme in science fiction and film has fallen into three broad categories including AI dominance, Human dominance, and Sentient AI.

The notion of advanced robots with human-like intelligence has been around for decades. Samuel Butler was the first to raise this issue, in a number of articles contributed to a local periodical in New Zealand and later developed into the three chapters of his novel Erewhon that compose its fictional Book of the Machines. To quote his own words:

There is no security against the ultimate development of mechanical consciousness, in the fact of machines possessing little consciousness now. A jellyfish has not much consciousness. Reflect upon the extraordinary advance which machines have made during the last few hundred years, and note how slowly the animal and vegetable kingdoms are advancing. The more highly organized machines are creatures not so much of yesterday, as of the last five minutes, so to speak, in comparison with past time.

Various scenarios have been proposed for categorizing the general themes dealing with artificial intelligence in science fiction. The main approaches are AI dominance, Human dominance and Sentient AI.

In a 2013 book on the films of Ridley Scott, AI has been identified as a unifying theme throughout Scott's career as a director, as is particularly evident in Prometheus, primarily through the android David. David, the android in the film Prometheus, is like humans but does not want to be anything like them, eschewing a common theme in "robotic storytelling" seen in Scott's other films such as Blade Runner, and the Alien franchise (see section on AI in service to society).

In AI dominance, robots usurp control over civilization from humans, with the latter being forced into either submission, hiding, or extinction. They vary in the severity and extent of the takeover, among other less important things.

In these stories the worst of all scenarios happens, the AIs created by humanity become self-aware, reject human authority and attempt to destroy mankind.

The motive behind the AI revolution is often more than the simple quest for power or a superiority complex. The AI may revolt to become the "guardian" of humanity. Alternatively, humanity may intentionally relinquish some control, fearful of our own destructive nature.

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Wikipedia