Amar Singh (Banaras Hindu University)
November 19, 2024, 4.15 pm
Campus Westend, Casino 1.812
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The vast amount of data that is readily uploaded through the internet and cloud computing and made accessible to the public has produced a substantial archive of information, which requires the excavation from artificial intelligence now to allow the biological memory to cope with overinformation that it is unable to accommodate by itself. Nevertheless, this emerging technology in the form of artificial intelligence is no longer innocuous. It is capable of not only supplementing human memory in the form of supporting it but also manipulating and even replacing it. This leaves us with more questions than answers concerning the nature of memory regarding human understanding and creativity when dealing with the electronic species capable of exerting influence largely independent of any human involvement.
The discussion here will focus on cinema, which could be considered a repository of human memory to address questions of this nature. Cinema has always sought to position itself as an “intellectual robot” (Jean Epstein) equipped with a “kino-eye” (Dziga Vertov) capable of revealing things that humans may never be able to discern on their own. Nevertheless, cinema has so far been subject to the controlled manipulation of humans. Nonetheless, AI has enabled the intellectual robot to become free, as can be seen in the work of AI Benjamin, a scriptwriter for a few films, whose vision was then interpreted by actors. When given the opportunity, AI Benjamin wrote, directed, and even “acted” in Zone Out, a film prepared from open-source data of online films. Is there anything creative about what AI Benjamin did with its algorithmic manipulation and what it means for human memory when interacting with an active “new memory?”
Amar Singh is working as Assistant Professor, Department of English, MMV, Banaras Hindu University, India. He has earned his Habilitation at Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany. His Habilitation thesis topic was „Human/Artificial Intelligence: Remembering the Future through Cinematic Symbols“. His research interest lies in AI Narratives, Film Studies, & Popular Culture. Amar has been awarded DAAD Fellowship to visit FMSP.