Speculative Fiction: from Pygmalion to ChatGPT

Long before ChatGPT, speculative fiction imagined the promises and perils of Artificial Intelligence in literature. This course will introduce students to literature and ethics through the topic of AI, asking such broad questions as: How can literature help us think through philosophical questions and ethical problems? How does culture borrow from literature in ways that are ethically dubious? What can the literature of the past tell us about our society's present and future?