Artificial Intelligence This article features the uses of science fiction facts in Artificial Intelligence research.

It is hard to believe, but future technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and more are a lot closer to science fiction than people think. What started as science fiction is fast becoming a science fact. Many people think that the technologies they use on daily basis are the creation of innovators who work in research labs with a mission to solve problems and invent new products. But do you know that many ideas came from those who had little to do with science and technology, but their imagination powers were strong enough to create Sci-Fi movies? And many science fiction facts lead to artificial intelligence research.

Several sci-fi movies and books have precisely anticipated and paved the way for many of the pieces of technology we appreciate today. This is certifiably not another peculiarity either - the innovator of the main fluid fuelled rocket, American Robert H. Goddard, was motivated by H.G. Wells's sci-fi novel War of the Worlds (1898). Later models incorporate the 3D motion-based UI utilized by Tom Cruise's personality in Minority Report (2002), which is observed today in most touch screens and the movement detecting capacity of Microsoft's Kinect. Essentially, the tablet PC first showed up in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and the communicator-which we've come to allude to today as the cell phone - was first utilized by Captain Kirk in Star Trek (1966).

It was a setback for the industry as a whole, but the idea of a talking, thinking robot wouldn’t die. Fast-forward to today, and artificial intelligence has become a part of mainstream life. If you own any virtual assistant, like Siri, Cortana, or Alexa, you’re already using AI.

Does this imply that reality has found sci-fi?

Artificial Intelligence and other technology portrayed in several of these sci-fi movies, such as Minority Report and 2001: A Space Odyssey, it was not random predictions. The directors - Stephen Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick - consulted with industrial designers, futurists, and advertising specialists, to try to visualize what the future world would look like.

To make the drama work, Artificial Intelligence is often portrayed as human-like or autonomous, regardless of the actual technological limitations. Taking science-fictional Artificial Intelligence too literally, and even applying it to science communication, paints a distorted image of the technology's current potential and distracts from the real-world implications and risks of Artificial Intelligence.

Today, that is beginning to look possible thanks to the work of Philipp Jordan at the University of Hawaii in the US and a few colleagues. These folks have studied the way researchers involved in human-computer interaction use science fiction in their work. And they find not only that science fiction plays a significant role, but that its impact is on the increase.

They found that researchers use science fiction in a variety of different ways. One is for theoretical design research. Another is to refer to and explore new forms of human-computer interaction, which researchers increasingly think is shaped by science fiction books and films. Then there is the study of human body modification, which is perhaps best explored via the medium of fiction.

So, as several sci-fi movies have foreshadowed modern-day technologies, the next time you watch a sci-fi film pay closer attention to what is portrayed, as science fiction is fast becoming a science fact.