The AI Identity Crisis: Selfhood, Ethics, and Humanity in Literature and Film

Abstract The representation of artificial intelligence (AI) identity in literature and film raises critical questions about self-awareness, ethics, and the boundaries of personhood. While Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) predates AI, it serves as a foundational text exploring artificial creation, consciousness, and societal rejection issues central to modern AI narratives. This paper examines how Frankenstein, Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (2021), alongside Blade Runner (1982), Ex Machina (2015), and A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), depicts AI beings struggling with identity, autonomy, and human recognition. Can AI develop selfhood beyond its programming? Does memory and emotion define identity? Should AI be granted ethical consideration? Blade Runner and Ex Machina present AI questioning their existence, while A.I. Artificial Intelligence explores an artificial child’s struggle for acceptance and love, mirroring Frankenstein and Klara and the Sun. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? delves into the conflict between human and machine consciousness, challenging the limits of artificial self-awareness. By analyzing these texts and films, this paper argues that AI, like Frankenstein’s creature, embodies both human ambition and fear. These narratives offer insight into evolving debates on AI ethics, consciousness, and identity, questioning whether artificial life can ever truly be human or if it will remain a reflection of its creators desires and limitations. Keywords: AI identity, self-awareness, ethics of AI, human vs. artificial consciousness, memory and identity, transhumanism, robotics in literature and film, AI personhood, cultural anxieties in AI narratives.