Reclaiming the Future
The AI Industry has long colonized the idea of the future with stories of the inevitability of AGI and sentient robots, ripped from the pages of fiction and repurposed as tech propaganda. Promising a brave new irreversibly transformed world, digital technology, techno optimists argue, will spawn a super- intelligence and lead to cosmic voyages and immorality. With the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, which has given way to a race for other corporate chatbots, the web has been forcefully inundated with generative-AI; it seems like a magic button that is not only everywhere all at once but also infinitely accessible. Yet, to rephrase Arthur C. Clarke, while “any sufficiently advanced technology” appears to be “indistinguishable from magic,” lift the hood and it reveals its bag of trick and the vast infrastructure on which it depends.
Turning Up the Heat
The AI Industry has long colonized the idea of the future with stories of the inevitability of AGI and sentient robots, ripped from the pages of fiction and repurposed as tech propaganda. Promising a brave new irreversibly transformed world, digital technology, techno optimists argue, will spawn a super- intelligence and lead to cosmic voyages and immorality. With the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, which has given way to a race for other corporate chatbots, the web has been forcefully inundated with generative-AI; it seems like a magic button that is not only everywhere all at once but also infinitely accessible. Yet, to rephrase Arthur C. Clarke, while “any sufficiently advanced technology” appears to be “indistinguishable from magic,” lift the hood and it reveals its bag of trick and the vast infrastructure on which it depends.
What You’ll Find Here
Social Robot Futures is a site where the story of AI “inevitability” is brought into question in order to open up space for thinking about possibilities and alternatives. We do this by tracking current news and events via BLUESKY and the SRF blog, presenting our own talks and publications, and curating critical scholarship on current issues and themes (see the Ideas/Issues menu on the navigation bar).
You will find the books and papers we have curated under the following headings: AI in the Classroom; Ecological Impacts; Ethics & Agency; Myth, Fiction & Rhetoric; Power & Political Economy; Technofeudal Shifts; and Weaponizing AI. As curation is an ongoing and evolving process, so too are these lists.
The site also provides annotated bibliographies on works of fiction and film pertaining to AI and robotics, as well a list of non-fiction texts accumulated since the launch of the Social Robot Futures site in 2014 (see the Ideas/Issues menu).
Recent Articles & Talks
- Teresa Hefferan, “Autonomous Weapons in Fiction and the Fiction of Autonomous Weapons,” in The Realities of Autonomous Weapons, ed. Thomas Christian Bächle and Jascha Bareis (Bristol University Press, 2025).
- Teresa Heffernan, “Orga Is Not Mecha: How Literal Readings of Fiction Are Damaging the World,” Apocalyptica 2, no. 2 (2024).
- Teresa Heffernan, “Mecha Is Not Orga: The Fiction of AI and the AI Industry,” Digital Humanities Summer Institute Keynote Lecture, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, May 1, 2024. Video.
- Teresa Heffernan, “Beyond the Hype: Exploring the Real-World Impacts of AI on Society, Democracy, and the Environment,” Interview by Sonja Johnson, Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto, March 13, 2024.
- Teresa Heffernan, “Director of SMU’s Social Robot Futures Project On How AI Companions Manipulate Us,” Interview by Jeff Douglas, NS Mainstreet with Jeff Douglas, CBC Radio, December 18, 2024.
Feature Posts
Why Science Needs Fiction
Scientists working in artificial intelligence and robotics often comment on the inspiration they draw from fiction. Yet what role do literature and film play when it comes to questions about the future of the industry, social policy, and ethics? … References to fictional robots are scattered throughout articles and books on artificial intelligence as designers of social robots and ethicists mine the rich array of “humanized” machines that have populated literature and film both for their imaginative richness and as a way of explaining and marketing their mission to the public. For instance, Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” are often cited in scientific articles; and social robot engineer Cynthia Breazeal, director of the Personal Robots Group at Media Lab at MIT, designs robots inspired by her love of C-3PO and R2-D2; while Amit Singhal, a software engineer and vice-president at Google, wants this web search engine “to become that perfect Star Trek computer.” But when it comes to “serious” discussions about the future of robots and AI, fiction is relegated to the background as the “truth” of science, steered by corporate interests, takes over. … [more here]
The Rift Between Science and Fiction: The Case of the “Family Robot”
Jibo, a device that is marketed as more than a “thing,” is the latest creation of Cynthia Breazeal, who has taken a leave from MIT to start up a company to sell this “family robot.” In a crowd-sourcing advertisement promoting “his” many roles, Jibo is referred to as an educator, entertainer, helper, companion, conversationalist, wingman, cameraman, and “a robot with humanity.” The heterosexual, white, suburban middle-class family with a single-family house, a garage, a car, lots of blonde smiling children, and a woman baking in the kitchen—seems to harken back to the 50s at the same time that the ad markets this technology as the arrival of the future: a robot that will be part of the “family.” … Spliced in the middle of this ad are clips of R2D2 from Star Wars, the nameless robot from Lost in Space, Johnny Five from Short Circuit, Rosie the Robot of the animated series The Jetsons, and WALL-E from the post-apocalyptic 2008 film of the same name. … [more here]
Henn na Hotel: Kawaii Robots and “the Ultimate in Efficiency”
… The feature of this hotel that has made international headlines and the reason we are spending the night, is the robots—they staff the check in, greet you at the door, and inhabit your room. Billed as “the ultimate in efficiency” and promising to “turn the hotel industry on its head,” the plan is to take this model international. … The check-in desks are operated by the pint-sized Nao, a female android called Yumeko (“dream girl”) and a dinosaur with a bow-tie and cap (only the dinosaur copes with English). Although they are promoted “as warm and friendly” and guests are invited to converse with them as the robots “go efficiently about their work,” it quickly becomes clear that the robots follow a set script and the process is in fact about getting the guests trained on self-check-in. … [more here]
Learning American Manners: Pepper Robots, My Fair Lady and the Spirit of Capitalism
“Pepper is finally coming to America.” So IEEE Spectrum editor Erico Guizzo wrote in a piece covering SoftBank Mobile Corporation’s announcement on May 19th [2016] that its humanoid robot Pepper will be introduced to North American markets later this year. … Guizzo’s “finally” should perhaps be read as a sigh of relief, an “at last,” for a product that landed on this continent in spirit, if not in body, at least a year ago. That temporal lag between the arrival of the spirit and the coming of the body of Pepper hints of a disharmonious “real world” occluded in the seductive promotional narratives and industry reportage framing Pepper. … [more here]
Force of Gravity in Space “Man” World
… the Genders in Space: Science Fiction, Cyborgs, and Alien Pleasures panel session [ICI Berlin 2017] … shed light on the current fixation among some techno-utopian superstars, notably Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, on “leaving Earth” and colonizing Mars. That escape-oriented, Mars-destined discourse follows on the concern that “humanity” needs to be rescued from impending annihilation wrought by “rogue” A.I. super-computers, climate change, and/or other “crises” arising from the pursuit of “progress”. Rather than analyze the societal contradictions producing these existential crises, for techno-utopians such as Hawking and Musk, the solution lies in advancing more of the same. … [more here]
Awakening to the Realities of AI in Healthcare
… Some people may think it esoteric to debate whether these technologies actually imbue AI with empathy and creativity or merely the illusion of such; however, the distinction is important when deciding if AI belongs in social domains such as healthcare. Do we want something that only appears to be compassionate caring for our loved ones when they are at their most vulnerable? Perhaps the illusion of empathy would suffice if healthcare were only about treating sickness, but medicine involves more than diagnosing disease and prescribing medication. It has taken the Western world centuries to understand that the practice of medicine must focus on people rather than disease and embracing AI in healthcare would be a blow to the hard-won progress we have made towards patient-centred healthcare. … [more here]