Artificial Intelligence in Action

This thesis investigates how Western philosophical science fiction cinema represents artificial intelligence (AI). In doing so, it examines AI as the posthuman subject centred around posthuman theory. The study reconfigures mainly around the themes of identity, consciousness and connection within and between the posthuman subjects in Western cinema, and critically analyses the representation of gender and ethics in science fiction as reflective medium genre. The qualitative thematic analysis was the method employed to analyse the three films featured in this study: Her (Jonze, 2013), Ex Machina (Garland, 2014), and Blade Runner 2049 (Villeneuve, 2017) for the exploration of the thematic representation of artificial intelligence in science fiction cinema. Using a custom-made codebook (Appendix B) the analysis was guided by five emerging themes informed by posthumanist and feminist theoretical frameworks. The coding process consisted of systematic and objective selection and analysis of data and was aimed at examining how cinematic media representations construct meaning about AI. The findings partially confirm posthuman theory as an emerging concept in science fiction representation.