Imagining AI: How the World Sees Intelligent Machines

by Stephen J. Cave, Kanta Dihal

Overview

AI is now a global phenomenon. Yet Hollywood narratives dominate perceptions of AI in the English-speaking West and beyond, and much of the technology itself is shaped by a disproportionately white, male, US-based elite. However, different cultures have been imagining intelligent machines since long before we could build them, in visions that vary greatly across religious, philosophical, literary and cinematic traditions. This book aims to spotlight these alternative visions.

Imagining AI draws attention to the range and variety of visions of a future with intelligent machines and their potential significance for the research, regulation, and implementation of AI. The book is structured geographically, with each chapter presenting insights into how a specific region or culture imagines intelligent machines. The contributors, leading experts from academia and the arts, explore how the encounters between local narratives, digital technologies, and mainstream Western narratives create new imaginaries and insights in different contexts across the globe. The narratives they analyse range from ancient philosophy to contemporary science fiction, and visual art to policy discourse.

The book sheds new light on some of the most important themes in AI ethics, from the differences between Chinese and American visions of AI, to digital neo-colonialism. It is an essential work for anyone wishing to understand how different cultural contexts interplay with the most significant technology of our time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198959557
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/15/2025
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Stephen J. Cave,Kanta Dihal

Stephen Cave is Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on philosophy and ethics of technology, particularly AI, robotics and life-extension. He is the author of Immortality (Crown, 2012), a New Scientist book of the year, and Should We Want To Live Forever (Routledge, 2023); and co-editor of AI Narratives (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Feminist AI (Oxford University Press, 2023). He writes widely about philosophy, technology and society, including for the Guardian and Atlantic. He also advises governments around the world, and has served as a British diplomat.

Kanta Dihal is Lecturer in Science Communication at Imperial College London, where she is Course Director of the MSc in Science Communication, and Associate Fellow of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on science narratives, particularly science fiction, and how they shape public perceptions and scientific development. She is co-editor of the books AI Narratives (2020) and Imagining AI (2023) and has advised international governmental organizations and NGOs. She has a DPhil from Oxford on the communication of quantum physics.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction, Stephen Cave and Kanta Dihal2. The Meanings of AI: a Cross-cultural Comparison, Stephen Cave, Kanta Dihal, Tomasz Hollanek, Hirofumi Katsuno, Yang Liu, Apolline Taillandier, Daniel WhitePart I. Europe3. AI Narratives and the French Touch, Madeleine Chalmers4. The Android as a New Political Subject: The Italian Cyberpunk Comic Ranxerox, Eleonora Lima5. German Science Fiction Literature exploring AI. Expectations, Hopes, and Fears, Hans Esselborn6. Automatic Gnosis: On Lem's Summa Technologiae, Bogna Konior7. Boys from a Suitcase: The Evil Robot and the Funny Robot as the main AI Concepts in Science Fiction of the USSR, Anton Pervushin8. The Russian Imaginary of Robots, Cyborgs and Intelligent Machines: A Hundred-Year History, 1. Anzhelika Solovyeva & Nik HynekPart II. The Americas and Pacific9. Fiery the Angels Fell: How Hollywood Imagines AI, Stephen Cave and Kanta Dihal10. Afrofuturismo and the Aesthetics of Resistance to Algorithmic Racism in Brazil, Edward King11. Artificial Intelligence in the Art of Latin America, Raul Cruz12. Imaginaries of Technology and Subjectivity: Representations of AI in Recent Latin American Science Fiction, Macarena Areco13. Imagining Indigenous AI, Jason Edward Lewis14. Maoli Intelligence: Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Futurity, Noelani AristaPart III. Africa, Middle East, and South Asia15. From Tafa to Robu: AI in the Fiction of Satyajit Ray, Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee16. Algorithmic Colonization of Africa, Abeba Birhane17. Artificial Intelligence Elsewhere: The Case of the Ogbanje, Rachel Adams18. AI Oasis? Imagining Intelligent Machines in the Middle East and North Africa, Kanta Dihal, Tomasz Hollanek, Nagla Rizk, Nadine Weheba, Stephen CavePart IV. East Asia19. Engineering Robots with Heart in Japan: The Politics of Cultural Difference in Artificial Emotional Intelligence, Hirofumi Katsuno & Daniel White20. Development and Developmentalism of Artificial Intelligence: Decoding South Korean Policy Discourse on Artificial Intelligence, So-Young Kim21. How Chinese Philosophy Impacts AI Narratives and Imagined AI Futures, Bing Song22. Attitudes of Thinkers in Pre-Qin Dynasty China to Mechanical Invention and Its Influence on the Development of Technology, Baichun Zhang and Miao Tian23. Artificial Intelligence in Chinese Science Fiction: From the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods to the Era of Deng Xiaoping, Yan Wu24. Algorithm of the Soul: Narratives of AI in Recent Chinese Science Fiction, Feng Zhang25. Intelligent Infrastructure, Humans as Resources, and Coevolutionary Futures: AI Narratives in Singapore, Cheryl Julia Lee and Graham Matthews