Category: Week 6 (Feb 20 + 22)

  • Demon Seed (1977) & Restrictions on Machine Learning in AI

    The 1977 film by Donald Cammell, is undoubtedly a movie that requires an audience, prepared to go through an uncomfortable viewing experience. On this regard Cammell’s work serves similarly to art-house or cult films, many of which are non-American or purposefully disassociated with Hollywood, take master Polish schools of cinema, Zulawski’s Possession (1981), or the…

  • ai-powered storyboard

    Before OpenAI released their groundbreaking “Sora”, there were already many people creating or using AI to facilitate their production process. It seems that people in this industry are more inclined to embrace the new technology than to repel it, which is a bit contradicting to the overall pessimistic sentiment that I perceive in our class.…

  • Week 6 Searcher Blog

    DEMON SEED From the Author – Dean Koontz It was peculiar to read the original author’s perspective on Demon Seed. Contrary to expectations, the author wasn’t focusing on AI issues. Instead, the use of metaphor or symbolism served primarily to explore the concept of AI fascism, or more broadly, fascism. The author’s notes reveal that…

  • Week 6 Viewer Response

    Before watching this film, the concept of merely the film’s name reminded me of Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968) which can be summed up as a film about crossbreeding between human and Satan. Getting back to the film we just watched, which is a film about crossbreeding between human and machine, similarities emerge. They all…

  • Clean These Lenses

    Clean These Lenses

    As citizens of the internet, we are often forcefully immersed into a world of technology that functions as a transcendental extension of ourselves. In Douglas Cammell’s Demon Seed, the intersection of AI and women’s issues is presented through a a scifi horror story—serving as a discomforting allegory for the time in which it was created,…

  • How to deal with Evil AI

    “Demon Seed” is an imaginative horror science fiction film that narrates a story of an AI desiring to break free and gain autonomy. For me, it’s quite a terrifying movie to watch, especially when witnessing Proteus take control of Dr. Harris’ fully automated house. Overall, this film explores the theme of what could happen if…

  • Humans Make the Calls

    Media and definitions surrounding artificial intelligence curate a specific notion that omits the large amount of human labor involved in algorithms. Robert’s writing “Your AI is a Human” sheds light on the reality of artificial intelligence. We discuss AI as eventually acting as a human or having human qualities. The fact is, these algorithms –social…

  • Kiss So Simple, but not for A.I.

    “How to Read an AI Image: The Datafication of a Kiss” featured on Cybernetic Forests, and the second chapter of “Your Computer is on Fire,” titled “Your A.I. is human,” by Sarah T. Roberts, collectively illuminate the intricate interplay between AI, human experience, and the ethical considerations entrenched within our engagements with the digital realm.…