Techno-pessimism and virtual worlds: AI, sci-fi and the films of Jon Rafman

The mass media is currently awash with alarmist editorial on the dangerous power of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Since the launch of ChatGPT and DALL·E 2 (both released in late 2022) by OpenAI, barely a week goes by without a new article heralding humanity’s doom in this brave new world of AI technology. Collectively, these voices constitute a wave of techno-pessimism. Yet these scaremongering accounts share a narrative structure with prior imaginings of AI in science fiction, in turn re-inflected by contemporary visual artists like Jon Rafman whose recent animation films (and paintings) use AI tools in their construction. While using AI programs, Rafman’s films prompt broader reflections on our hyper-technologised universe, forming a virtual world in which the pall of pessimism is never far.

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