Imagining AI futures in mainstream cinema: socio-technical narratives and social imaginaries

Abstract

This article offers a critical review of how mainstream cinema constructs futures of AI and normalises modes of governance for those futures. Drawing on scholarship on AI narratives, socio-technical imaginaries, and film analysis, and using an illustrative and replicable corpus of nine feature films (selected from IMDb with at least 200,000 votes), the article identifies three cross-cutting patterns. First, the dystopian/cyberpunk canon in live action is linked to technopessimistic social imaginaries and has received sustained attention. Second, hybrid futures shift the grammar of threat towards coexistence, especially when AI is integrated into care/management plots and diegetic violence is contained. Third, the rebellious role of AI is associated with representations of AI as independent artificial general intelligence (AGI) and high thresholds of violence, reinforcing socio-technical imaginaries characterised by fear of machine rebellion. Overall, the article provides a sociological reading that links reception, futures, and roles, with implications for AI governance and its social implementation.