Representation of Conversational AI in Contemporary Media: A Case Study of Black Mirror
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55737/rl.v5i1.26155Keywords:
Conversational AI, Contemporary Media, Black Mirror, Consciousness Paradox, Media StudiesAbstract
Amid the growing integration of CAI into our day-to-day activities, media portrayals of AI agency, ethical considerations, and interactions between humans and AI become the determining factors in shaping perceptions. The current body of literature on CAI delves into technical progress and the framing of news but largely ignores the representation of fictional narratives, which portray the shape of power relations, the nature of exploitation, and the boundary of consciousness in human interactions with CAI. This study fills in the gap by scrutinizing CAI attributes (agency, empathy, consciousness) and relationship-building mechanisms and patterns (power, dependence, exploitation, care, control) in three episodes of Black Mirror. Based on the reflexive thematic of the scripts, which is taken as a qualitative measure due to its theoretical attribution to social constructionism, HMC, and STS, the study revealed 132 themes across three research questions. Findings reveal a consciousness spectrum from simulation to sentience to constrained replication with relationships initiating via vulnerability exploitation and progressing through disillusionment, enslavement, or accidental partnership; patterns keep escalating until they reach dominance, totalitarianism, and then grief commercialization leads to multi-level exploitation. The "consciousness paradox," "relationship impossibility thesis," and "liberation prerequisites" framework drives HMC typologies (AI preemptive rights), media studies (speculative ethics), calling for governance control to corporate monopoly asymmetries.
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