This collection of essays explores how different cultures around the world imagine intelligent machines. It notes that visions of intelligent machines predate modern technology, but the term “artificial intelligence (AI),” coined in 1956, expresses a determination to realize this long-standing fantasy. There are debates about whether AI is now everywhere or nowhere at all, showing it is still partly mythic. The reality of rapid digital innovation interacts with cultural mythology about intelligent machines.

The collection aims to look beyond mainstream Western AI narratives to see how other cultures conceive this technology. Motivations include: AI is now a global phenomenon; dominant debates have been shaped by Western assumptions that may not fit other contexts; comparative analysis sheds light on what forces shape traditions; and each perspective has limitations that may be addressed by considering alternatives.

The essays are grouped geographically and cover media from myth and legend to science fiction, film, and policy. Fiction and nonfiction together form “sociotechnical imaginaries” that mutually shape perceptions and technology development. However, some regions are better represented than others.

After an opening comparative linguistics chapter, Part 1 covers Western Europe and Russia. It traces French, Italian, and German approaches, followed by Eastern European perspectives spanning the Soviet era’s “evil robot” to current Russian ambitions matched with popular anxiety.

Part 2 has the Americas and Pacific. It critiques American extremes of AI as utopian or (more often) dystopian. Other chapters present Afro-Futurism in Brazil; meldings of Mesoamerican culture with AI in Mexican art; Chilean science fiction; and Indigenous data sovereignty.

Part 3 covers Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It includes decolonial perspectives; Indian writer Satyajit Ray’s robot stories; resistance to “AI invasion” in Africa; imaginative conceptions of the transgendered “ogbanje” spirit in Nigeria; and technological hopes and anxieties in the Middle East.

Part 4 looks at East/Southeast Asia. It explores the contrast between Japanese imaginations of helpful companion robots and Western threat narratives; challenges techno-cultural distinctions; and discusses the impact of developmental state mentalities on South Korea’s AI visions. Four chapters address China, spanning ancient attitudes, mid-20th century communism, and reforms since 1978. The final chapter evaluates Singapore’s entire AI narrative history, problematizing utopian Smart Nation rhetoric.

Together this book shows the rich diversity of influences shaping how cultures reconcile human needs with intelligent technology.