Science Fiction as the Blueprint: Informing Policy in the Age of AI and Emerging Tech

Introduction Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) will be strategically pivotal in the twenty-first century. The rapid advancement of frontier technologies, including AI, virtual reality (VR), and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), presents a pressing challenge for governments worldwide. The accelerating pace of technological innovation, the chaotic and sensationalist marketing strategies aimed by AI developers at non-experts, and the potentially asymmetric cross-sector impact of emerging tech platforms demand proactive policy responses and robust sociopolitical discussions. However, policymakers and analysts confront a unique difficulty: engaging in conversations about emerging technologies and platforms that are constantly evolving. This issue came to the fore in 2017 during discussions on AI policy at the European Parliament. Following talks on possible near-future applications of AI in one of the world’s first AI policy documents, the European Parliament adopted its Civil Law Rules for Robotics. [1] The discussions opened with various references to science fiction, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , Czech author Karel Capek’s coinage of the term ‘robot’ in 1921, and the three laws of robotics posited in Isaac Asimov’s 1943 short story Runaround . During the discussion, the Parliament requested the European Commission to submit a proposal for a directive on civil law rules for robots and “creating a specific legal status for robots in the long run”. [2] The request was seemingly made under the assumption that the speculated robot workers would be operating on an AI framework that could potentially afford them some form of sentience, thus conflating robots with AI. In another instance, the Parliament recommended that Asimov’s three laws of robotics “must be regarded as being directed at the designers, producers, and operators of robots, including robots assigned with built-in autonomy and self-learning.” [3] Six years later, no sentient robots or robust AI frameworks have been developed, and neither are there any expectations for them to emerge in the near future, except in science fiction. The European Parliament discussion highlighted the influence of cultural narratives about frontier technologies on attempts at anticipatory governance. This brief argues that due to their influence on the techno-cultural gestalt, science fiction narratives can be used to inform policy frameworks for emerging technologies.