The representation in Spanish cinema of AI associated with robotics: Eva and Automata

Abstract

‘Artificial Intelligence’, ‘ChatGTP’ and ‘OpenAI’ are some of the most searched terms on Google today according to Google Trends (2023). However, part of the concept of artificial intelligence and, above all, of its possible technological applications in advanced robotics, derive from social and cultural imaginaries that have been constructed thanks to its representation in literature, cinema, series and video games. Specifically, in cinema, films like Blade Runner (Scott, 1984), Terminator (Cameron, 1984), AI: Artificial Intelligence (Spielberg, 2001), I, Robot (Proyas, 2004) or Ex-Machina (Garland, 2014) have projected the image of intelligent robots as a threat or otherness to human beings. The objective of this manuscript is to compare the discourse of the Spanish films Eva (Maíllo, 2011) and Automata (Ibáñez, 2014) against the scientific discourse of the 25 top-rated films according to IMDB that include the subject of artificial intelligence. For this, three perspectives have been triangulated: the myth of Prometheus (Nieto, 2022), the principles of robotic mythology (Pérez, 2004) and the human-non-human dichotomy (Gastaka & Iturregi, 2022), which has allowed, following the methodology of Novoa et al. (2019), the characteristics and traits that define the scientific discourse of AI in cinematography to be extrapolated in order to thus be able to analyze the discourse of both Spanish films. The results allow us to conclude that there are no discrepancies between national and international science fiction regarding the positioning of AI as the end of humanity and the design of dystopian and apocalyptic societies, although Eva and Automata in particular pose ethical and anthropological issues for debate from different perspectives about ethics in robotics and otherness, potentially fueling the debate about the ability of robots and androids to feel in the face of the collective imagination.