While AI is a major component of the science fiction genre, it has its uses in other genres as well – most significantly in the horror and the documentary genres. The science-fiction genre is the baseline for AI representation in media – you can almost find every kind of depiction of the technology within it. Horror, on the other hand, always depicts AI as the villain and uses codes and conventions to do so. However, since AI does not have to play the role of an antagonist as shown in science-fiction, why must it always in horror (other than the genre itself)? How is AI depicted differently in order to make it more or less scary? And, perhaps an even better question, is AI even depicted differently in the first place? The documentary genre is strikingly different compared to these two as it is realistic rather than fictional. The narratives told about AI are much more grounded. How do these narratives compare to narratives in fictional media? How dramatized are fictional depictions of AI? Depending on how my research goes, I may also include fantasy or mystery as one of the genres as both of them generally don’t include AI in their narratives. Why is that the case? What about AI doesn’t fit into the genre’s codes and conventions? What meaning can be found in the lack of AI? If I choose to do this, I might choose to switch it out for horror and alter the frame of discussion to comparing AI depictions in fictional media, realistic media, and it’s non-depiction, rather than genres in particular (if that makes sense).
I imagine I’ll be working with peer-reviewed journal articles found from the OU Library’s website and its databases to complete this paper. I’ve already been looking through some of them to see what topics would be somewhat viable to talk about and I found that the Film & Media Studies were helpful! But I’m worried that I won’t find enough scholarly research on movies/books that both talk about AI and fit into one of my genres. I also worry that comparing the depictions of AI might be more difficult than I’m anticipating…