Artificial intelligence-themed film festival kicks off Tuesday, August 29

Artificial intelligence (AI) is coming to a theater near you… literally.

Auburn University’s AI@AU Initiative, a program designed to expand AI research and education, will sponsor the 2023 AI Fall Film Festival – five films about artificial intelligence, from summer blockbusters to Hollywood classics. All movies are free and open to the public.

“Artificial intelligence is reshaping our world, and science fiction has shaped our ideas about artificial intelligence,” said Adam Jortner, the Goodwin-Philpott Eminent Professor of Religion in the Department of History, and chair of the AI@AU Advanced AI Think Tank Committee. “Most of us are thinking with movies about AI as we try to tackle the problems AI present. That can be great if the analogies are accurate – but disastrous if they are not.”

What can people learn from TRON, the computer science thriller that taught us about RAM before the era of gigabytes? What about iRobot, where human-like machines performed tasks and became a threat?

Viewers will have the opportunity to view five movies, then learn from an Auburn University professor about what they witnessed and how it can be applied today… and tomorrow.

Select films – beginning at 7 p.m. inside the Foy Union main ballroom – include 2001: A Space Odyssey, Aug. 29 (AI and Truth), iRobot, Sept. 12 (Can AI be human?), Ex Machina, Sept. 26 (Puppets and Masters), Moon, Oct. 10 (AI and Language), and TRON, Oct. 24 (AI and God).

“We are not the first generation to think about artificial intelligence and what a thinking machine means for society, economics, human possibility, or the nature of God.” Jortner said. “But we are the first generation to think about those things with actual thinking machines alongside us. It’s critical now to go back and think through what others have said about artificial intelligence, rather than just letting the technology set the pace for us.

“This is a chance for the Auburn community to learn and think about the consequences of artificial intelligence, and have a great, old-fashioned movie experience at the same time.”