Do AI portrayals in film predict a future of robotic overlords or simply offer a chance to innovate cinema?

Artificial Intelligence in cinema goes way back. Spanning from Fritz Lang’s 1927 Metropolis and robot Maria, to the iconic Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey, our tech obsession runs deep in film. But why is it all so dystopian?
What now seems to be a serious technological shift, we discuss how A.I. could impact cinema and what film depictions of sentient machines might tell us of what’s to come.

Come watch 2001: A Space Odyssey with us as part of our first ever Celebrating Cinema Film Club – book your tickets ⁠here⁠.

Show notes

• AI Will Smith eating spaghetti pasta (AI footage and audio)
• The Best Movie About A.I. | Thomas Flight
• This Is Not Morgan Freeman – A Deepfake Singularity | Diep Niep
• Introducing Sora – OpenAI’s text-to-video model | OpenAI

Films mentioned

(click on the links for tickets to screenings at LAB111)

• Civil War (Alex Garland, 2024)
• Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015)
• Miami Vice: TV Series (Anthony Yerkovich, 1988-90)
• Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve, 2024)
• Dune: Part One (Denis Villeneuve, 2021)
• Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, 2024)
• Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017)
• Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)
• The Balcony Movie (Paweł Łoziński, 2021)
• Tishe! (Victor Kossakovsky, 2003)
• Daguerréotypes (Agnès Varda, 1975)
• Spiderman: Across the Spider Verse (Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers, 2023)
• Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
• Her (Spike Jonez, 2013)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
• Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
• The Matrix (Lily & Lana Wachowski, 1999)
• Westworld (Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy, 2016)
• The Birdcage (Mike Nichols, 1996)
• Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
• The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski, 2021)
• Wall-e (Andrew Stanton, 2008)
• Inventing the Future (Isiah Medina, 2020) 

Our hosts