GS 220 AI in Global Literature: Imagining Intelligence

A creature stitched from corpses dreams of companionship--a mechanical slave rebels against its master. A dying man gives his wife an artificial version of himself. Long before IBM's AI bested the world chess champion and ChatGPT entered our lives, storytellers worldwide were imagining artificial life and giving shape to our hopes, fears, and questions about what it means to be human. This course examines how literature across centuries and continents represented artificial intelligence, not just as machines, but as mirrors of cultural values, ethical dilemmas, and evolving future visions.