A Note From The CAI Co-Chairs

by Todd Essig, PhD and Amy Levy, PsyD

Once it became clear to us at the CAI that the rapidly developing AI culture needs what psychoanalysis has, getting the word out about what we offer became an unavoidable imperative. So, we’re making a movie!

You read that right. The APsA CAI has joined with notable documentarian Charles de Lauzirika to create a film or series (we are still ironing out those details) that asks how artificial intelligence is changing what it means and how it feels to be human and be human in relationships. We’ve titled Uncharted Territory: Humans and the Rise of AI to reflect the fact that the stories we’re telling are about people, not what AI can or can’t do or how AI has both tantalizing promise and catastrophic risk (which it does, but that’s a topic for a different time).

Uncharted territory refers to both the unknowable future and the unconscious mind at the core of psychoanalytic knowledge. That’s one thing we bring, a reminder that we’re conscious beings driven by unconscious processes and fantasies. Another is a method of treatment built on what emerges from the unique encounter between someone suffering and in need and someone responding with deep professional expertise and equally deep human care and concern. While AI will soon be able to reasonably replicate the transmission of information that constitutes professional expertise, it will never be able to offer the love and compassion that grows between people. Though we’ll be replicated, as long as we live in a culture that values human process and care, we won’t be replaced.

There’s something else we bring: a psychoanalytic sensibility. Amidst the noise of constant social media “story-selling” and mass media hype, we’ll be showing the power of reflection and conversation, and of curiosity and trust in the human mind. Compelling stories told with a psychoanalytic sensibility will both capture attention — they’ll be compelling — and deliver the message that human beings need to be in deep relationship with each other. A psychoanalytic sensibility can help push the promises and avoid the perils of this historically unique moment where not only our status as the most intelligent entities on the planet is in jeopardy, but the value of human relationships is under attack.

If you’d like to learn more and provide support for this project, please visit the Uncharted Territory website at UnchartedTerritory-Film.com.