Episode Description
What happens when an AI trained on serial killers escapes into the real world? Join the Computer Séance team as they unpack Virtuosity, examining how its vision of artificial intelligence, policing, surveillance, virtual reality, and AI ethics feels surprisingly relevant in the age of ChatGPT, generative AI, and algorithmic decision-making.
About Virtuosity (1995):Director: Brett Leonard
Writer: Eric Bernt
Stars: Denzel Washington, Kelly Lynch, Russell Crowe
References:
Watch Virtuosity - https://tinyurl.com/3hjwcehtVirtuosity (1995)
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdYoDEh_L7M
WIKI - https://tinyurl.com/2s3sp9stIMDB - https://tinyurl.com/ypeyzfwa
Rotten Tomatoes - https://tinyurl.com/ysbac3ps
On ELIZA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA
Liz Rosenfeld: https://www.lizrosenfeld.co/
On AI sabotage: https://tinyurl.com/ye42s3rj
Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter (1993) https://tinyurl.com/m4kswa4j
Jack Halberstam, Queer Art of Failure (2011) https://tinyurl.com/ysm9n6xa
On hauntology: https://tinyurl.com/52eh2rdm
On Artaud & Virtual Reality: https://tinyurl.com/5n6tyde8
On the Imperial Archive by Thomas Richards: https://tinyurl.com/4zkka8h8
The After AI Symposium: https://afteraisymposium.com/
Link to Dr Mustafa Ali’s presentation “Apocalyptic AI Otherwise:” youtube.com/watch?v=V4AxoPjZNTY&feature=youtu.be
On technological progress and social progress: Griffin, G. W. (2026). Technological Progress≠ Social Progress. In Human Capital Supply Chain in the Age of AI: Workforce Transformation, Strategy, and the Future of Work (pp. 41-50). Berkeley, CA: Apress.
On the female voice and AI:
a) Tolmeijer, S., Zierau, N., Janson, A., Wahdatehagh, J. S., Leimeister, J. M. M., & Bernstein, A. (2021, May). Female by default?–exploring the effect of voice assistant gender and pitch on trait and trust attribution. In Extended abstracts of the 2021 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1-7).
b) Sindoni, M. G. (2024). The femininization of AI-powered voice assistants: Personification, anthropomorphism and discourse ideologies. Discourse, Context & Media, 62, 100833.
On the Palestine laboratory: Loewenstein, A. (2024). The Palestine laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world. Verso Books.
On prison labour training AI in Finland: https://www.wired.com/story/prisoners-training-ai-finland/
Humans using Grok: https://www.superagent.sh/blog/grok-image-jailbreak and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzKcvFsXtwE AI and weapon systems: https://aiwar.cloud/
Follow us: https://linktr.ee/computerseance
What can popular culture teach us about the technologies that are reshaping our lives?
Each week in Computer Séance presenters Justin, Tracie and Ben dissect a pop culture artefact that features an intelligent machine and explores how it compares with developments in AI today.
More About Your Hosts!
Dr R Justin Hunt is an artist and academic based in London; his work explores archives of queerness
Dr Tracie Farrell a Senior Research Fellow at the Open University, and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow examining the intersections between social justice and artificial intelligence.
Dr Ben Sweeting is a university lecturer who teaches and learns about design.
It is produced by Cat McShane. Sound mixing by Dan Bolger and original music by Rosa Brook. Graphic Design by Retno Larasati.
Computer Séance is funded by a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship grant.
All the opinions expressed in the program are the presenters' own and do not reflect the positions of our employers, or UKRI.
Episodes may contain language that some listeners find offensive
About Virtuosity (1995):Director: Brett Leonard
Writer: Eric Bernt
Stars: Denzel Washington, Kelly Lynch, Russell Crowe
References:
Watch Virtuosity - https://tinyurl.com/3hjwcehtVirtuosity (1995)
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdYoDEh_L7M
WIKI - https://tinyurl.com/2s3sp9stIMDB - https://tinyurl.com/ypeyzfwa
Rotten Tomatoes - https://tinyurl.com/ysbac3ps
On ELIZA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA
Liz Rosenfeld: https://www.lizrosenfeld.co/
On AI sabotage: https://tinyurl.com/ye42s3rj
Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter (1993) https://tinyurl.com/m4kswa4j
Jack Halberstam, Queer Art of Failure (2011) https://tinyurl.com/ysm9n6xa
On hauntology: https://tinyurl.com/52eh2rdm
On Artaud & Virtual Reality: https://tinyurl.com/5n6tyde8
On the Imperial Archive by Thomas Richards: https://tinyurl.com/4zkka8h8
The After AI Symposium: https://afteraisymposium.com/
Link to Dr Mustafa Ali’s presentation “Apocalyptic AI Otherwise:” youtube.com/watch?v=V4AxoPjZNTY&feature=youtu.be
On technological progress and social progress: Griffin, G. W. (2026). Technological Progress≠ Social Progress. In Human Capital Supply Chain in the Age of AI: Workforce Transformation, Strategy, and the Future of Work (pp. 41-50). Berkeley, CA: Apress.
On the female voice and AI:
a) Tolmeijer, S., Zierau, N., Janson, A., Wahdatehagh, J. S., Leimeister, J. M. M., & Bernstein, A. (2021, May). Female by default?–exploring the effect of voice assistant gender and pitch on trait and trust attribution. In Extended abstracts of the 2021 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1-7).
b) Sindoni, M. G. (2024). The femininization of AI-powered voice assistants: Personification, anthropomorphism and discourse ideologies. Discourse, Context & Media, 62, 100833.
On the Palestine laboratory: Loewenstein, A. (2024). The Palestine laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world. Verso Books.
On prison labour training AI in Finland: https://www.wired.com/story/prisoners-training-ai-finland/
Humans using Grok: https://www.superagent.sh/blog/grok-image-jailbreak and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzKcvFsXtwE AI and weapon systems: https://aiwar.cloud/
Follow us: https://linktr.ee/computerseance
What can popular culture teach us about the technologies that are reshaping our lives?
Each week in Computer Séance presenters Justin, Tracie and Ben dissect a pop culture artefact that features an intelligent machine and explores how it compares with developments in AI today.
More About Your Hosts!
Dr R Justin Hunt is an artist and academic based in London; his work explores archives of queerness
Dr Tracie Farrell a Senior Research Fellow at the Open University, and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow examining the intersections between social justice and artificial intelligence.
Dr Ben Sweeting is a university lecturer who teaches and learns about design.
It is produced by Cat McShane. Sound mixing by Dan Bolger and original music by Rosa Brook. Graphic Design by Retno Larasati.
Computer Séance is funded by a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship grant.
All the opinions expressed in the program are the presenters' own and do not reflect the positions of our employers, or UKRI.
Episodes may contain language that some listeners find offensive