Probe the Artificial Intelligence-Human Link at The Lindsay’s Science on Screen®
From Google to Siri to ChatGPT, artificial intelligence (AI) is invading our lives and expanding its capabilities, raising ethical questions of how AI will be used to benefit or harm humanity, alongside philosophical questions about the differences between machines and humans.
The final chapter of The Lindsay Theater and Cultural Center’s 2023 three-part Science on Screen® film/speaker series at 7 p.m., Thursday, June 15, tackles these issues with a screening of After Yang. A presentation by a Washington & Jefferson College professor and expert on the relationship between AI and humans will precede the screening of the film about a couple whose daughter’s beloved android companion, Yang, goes haywire.
After Yang, directed by South Korean-born filmmaker Kogonada and starring Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith, relates how the family reacts to Yang’s malfunctions. “The effort to fix Yang gives the movie its narrative spine and slow-building emotional punch, ” said The New York Times, particularly with the discovery that Yang filed away memories of significant moments of his life with the family.
The film “meditates on what it is to be human and how that may in the future be modified, but it also addresses loss in the present day, ” says the UK’s Guardian. “This is a complex, intelligent, questioning film.” Flickering Myth adds, “After Yang is a beautiful rumination on a life lived, the importance of all life, what it means to live and how identity is shaped.”
W&J’s Professor and Chair of Computing and Information Studies, Dr. Amanda Holland-Minkley, will share her expertise on AI and its interaction with humans at 7 p.m., prior to the screening of the 90-minute film.
Holland-Minkley teaches courses in programming, game development, AI, security and other topics in the digital world. Her recent research collaborations with students have included using machine learning techniques to understand the economic impact of security breaches on a company and to analyze the emotional content of Twitter postings.
Tickets for this special event are available now. General admission tickets are $11, with discounts to $8.75 for senior citizens 65 and older, children 10 and under, college students and military with ID, and groups of 10 or more.
The Lindsay is honored to be the only cultural center in the tri-state selected for funding by the national Science on Screen program, an initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The program shares, “All of these grant recipients”which span 42 states from coast to coast”play a significant role in the cultural life of their communities, with successful track records of building strong community partnerships and producing creative, thought-provoking film programs that both educate and entertain audiences.”
The Lindsay Theater and Cultural Center, formerly The Tull Family Theater, is an independent, film-driven arts nonprofit with two screening rooms and flexible event/performance space at 418 Walnut St., Sewickley. Holding accessibility as its hallmark, the Theater made Pennsylvania history as the first cinema in the state offering weekly Open Captioning screenings. Cinema Maker Sessions (CiMS), the Theater’s career readiness program at the intersection of STEM and the arts, offers project-based learning to middle schoolers from low- and moderate-wealth communities. Diverse programming encompasses new releases and independent, classic, documentary, educational and cultural films, festivals, sensory friendly screenings, film-speaker series, free events and live performances.
Parking, available in a neighboring municipal lot and on the street, is free after 5 p.m. weekdays.
