Long the topic of speculative fiction and fantasy, friendship with an AI chatbot is now a reality.  Some use AI to commune with the dead, others consult it for answers to life’s big problems.  For others, it offers a genuine antidote to loneliness.  Yet how do we frame and build relationships with the artificially intelligent?

University of Otago's Professor David Ciccoricco says fiction offers models, from Isaac Asimov’s robots and Philip K. Dick’s androids in classic sci-fi, to contemporary takes on AI by Kazuo Ishiguro and Jeanette Winterson.

He asks how might literary narratives – including classical myths, like Ovid’s Metamorphoses – help explain the imaginative and often intimate interactions arising from the new phenomenon of AI companions?  And how do these narratives reflect and absorb our collective anxieties and desires?

David’s discussion of literature and AI intimacies - featuring Pygmalion, Narcissus, and ChatGPT - is part of MindJam, a celebration of thinking organised by Catalyst Trust and Otago University's Humanities Division in Arrowtown this Labour Weekend.

David is Professor of English at Otago University. His research draws on cognitive science and philosophy of mind to establish how fictional minds help explain actual ones. His book Refiguring Minds in Narrative Media (2015) explores cognitive approaches to narratives in print novels, digital fictions, and story-driven video games and he's a co-creator of BabyHex, a digital narrative masquerading as a language-learning simulator embodied in an AI baby. 

This event is part of MindJam, in Arrowtown’s Lake District Museum Gallery this coming Labour Weekend:  Friday Oct 23, 6:30 pm; Saturday, 11am and 1 pm; Sunday 11am and 1pm.

Discussions will range from how to build a better world to the ‘new’ feminism, ‘teachnology’, AI relationships in literature and life, and the global context of NZ's general election. Check the schedule on our Catalyst Trust website, Humanitix or Facebook pages and join us for some MindJam magic.

Attendance is free, but with koha going to Lakes District Museum's education programme.