A GENDERED ANALYSIS OF HUMAN-AI RELATIONSHIPS AI - entities in Her and Ex Machina

Sammanfattning: AI representations in contemporary media provide interesting illustrative examples that show wider perspectives on the complex relationship between humans and AI. This study aims to analyze the portrayal of female AI entities in the following movies: Her and Ex Machina. The analysis is carried out by Fairclough's three-dimensional approach to critical discourse analysis and introduces key theoretical concepts such as Male Gaze, Anthropomorphism, and Hayles’ Post-human. This study delves into the portrayals of female AI characters and provides new insights into the role of anthropomorphizing these AI entities in the movies’ narratives. Additionally, it draws notable examples of the movies on Hayles’ Post-human. Finally, it shows that the movie Ex Machina promotes the sexualization of women specifically, Asian women and it promotes the stereotype of thin women as a beauty standard. In summary, the findings validate the produced results from previous studies that both films achieved complex representations that conform to, and challenge accepted gender norms simultaneously. An indirect result achieved in this study emphasizes the profound influence of culture on post-human identity and on accepted social norms. Hence, it is crucial to assess the media representations of gender and AI. Because those representations play a vital role in shaping social perceptions and norms. Eventually, this will reflect on our relationship with those intelligent systems and on their capabilities as well in the future. Lastly, this study offers an opportunity for further studies to delve into the potential impact of media representations on the development of AI.