Portrayals and perceptions of cinematic artificial intelligence: a mixed-method analysis of I, Robot (2004) and Chappie (2015)

Abstract

This study investigates the portrayal and perception of artificial intelligence (AI) in I, Robot (2004) and Chappie (2015), providing one of the first accounts of the causality between attitudes and expectations in the representation and reception of films about AI. The findings suggest that the level of optimism of a film is likely to be linked to its socio-cultural context. The humanoid representation of each robotic protagonist prevented each film from skewing too far towards the extremes of technological optimism or pessimism. This affected respondents’ attitudes immediately after viewership, but this affect was short-lived. Additionally, while portrayals of the future somewhat aligned to contemporary developments regarding weak AI, they were overly optimistic or pessimistic about the future of strong AI. This had little impact on respondents’ fears and expectations, as respondents used the films as visual aids to mentally depict abstract concepts relating to AI that were arrived at elsewhere.