Flipping friends: human–AI sociality in Ishiguro, McEwan, Disney’s Lightyear, and Alien: Romulus

Abstract

ABSTRACT In a time when the social, economic and ethical implications of artificial intelligence on society are subject to intense debate, films and novels are conducive theoretical can openers into the complexities of what it means to live with artificial companions. With the purpose of examining and describing how we relate to and interact with such AI-powered life-simulating machines, the article turns to a qualitative analysis of contemporary anglophone literary texts and films. In works by Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Disney’s Lightyear and the Alien franchise, AI companions tend to be portrayed as agents capable of eliciting conflicting social responses in humans – conceptualised here as ‘flipping’. The notion of uncanniness is applied to capture the general unreliability of artificial intelligence in the cultural imagination, and it is argued that the uncanny benefits from being combined with notions of ‘flipping’ friendship – in the sense that it locates the ambivalence of cultural representations of AI companions in relations, rather than mechanics. From this platform of cultural analysis, the article contributes a social dimension to analytical endeavours aimed at understanding the meaning of artificial companions in today’s world.