Artificial Intelligence and Humans: A Love Story (?)

Can a human love a machine? Can a machine love a human? Should artificial beings enjoy rights, perhaps even the same rights as humans? Ultimately, are humans different from artificial beings, or could we leave behind our biological form and live on as machines?

Cutting edge issues that are discussed in ACT classrooms were brought into the public sphere, in a serious and yet entertaining way, during the film screening of the Oscar awarded movie “Ex Machina”. The screening and the discussion followed were held at Ypsilon café, on the 29th of November, and were organized by the English and New Media Program, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences at ACT.

Vincent Mueller, Professor of Philosophy at ACT, Yvonne Kosma, Adjunct Professor of Cultural Studies at ACT, and Apostolos Karakasis, Adjunct Professor of Film Editing, Film School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, prompted thoughts about the rights and obligations of robots, the reasons why we care about robots (human power in this world, and human self-image) and about the positive or negative contributions AI and robotics will make to society. The role of women as objects (sexual and otherwise) and as not trustworthy vs. men as makers and victims of female cunning was also thematized.