What does it mean to fall in love with a machine?

When Spike Jonze’s ‘Her’ was released in 2013, a romantic relationship between a human and an AI operating system still felt like a strange piece of speculative fiction. More than a decade later, the film feels remarkably close to some of the questions we are asking right now! ‘Her’ is not really about whether machines can become “human”. It is about us: our capacity for attachment, intimacy and empathy – and the ways in which technology can reshape how we understand connection itself. And perhaps one of the most interesting questions is not whether a machine can feel, but what happens when we feel something for a machine.

What kinds of relationships do we create with technologies that can respond to us, learn from us and increasingly appear to understand us? And how might art and popular culture help us think through these possibilities before – or while – they become part of everyday life?

Join us for the next ‘Science. Art. Film.’ screening and discussion at NFSA Canberra, where we’ll explore these questions with an excellent panel working across AI, human perception, computational art, techno art and science communication. — with Dr Jess Herrington, Sui Jackson and Dr Ben Swift !

Wednesday 30 September, 6pm. Tickets: https://www.nfsa.gov.au/whats-on/science-art-film-her-4651