Paper: What can science fiction tell us about the future of AI policy?
ArtificialOther · x · 2026-09-02
This paper, published in 2021, addresses the gap between popular AI narratives (like the killer robot trope) and realistic near-future policy implications. The authors conducted interviews with technologists and sci-fi writers, held workshops, and analyzed nearly 100 recent sci-fi works to develop a preliminary taxonomy of AI in fiction.
The findings indicate that AI remains deeply ambiguous in policy and cultural contexts, making it difficult to define its boundaries and agency, and consequently to govern it. However, the study suggests more productive avenues of inquiry that could foster better policy and narratives. It also commissioned original sci-fi and non-fiction essays on themes of "intelligence" and "justice".
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