Bernard Shaw, Automata, Robots, and Artificial Intelligence

This project is the first to explore how Bernard Shaw intersects constructively with automata, robots and artificial intelligence (AI). Shaw was born in the golden age of the automaton. His Bible on the Life Force and Creative Evolution, Back to Methuselah, was written when Karel and Josef Capek coined the word “robot.” Shaw’s life ran in parallel with the rise of AI, and the big names in AI were his contemporaries. Moreover, empirical analyses of Shavian texts and images using AI uncovers possibilities for new interpretations, demonstrating how future renditions of his works may make use of these advanced technologies to broaden Shaw’s audience, readership and scholarship. Kay Li is an established Shaw scholar and Adjunct Professor in the Department of English at University of Toronto, Canada. She is one of the founding members of the International Shaw Society, is the Project Leader of the SAGITTARIUS–ORION Digitizing Project on Bernard Shaw funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Arts and Artificial Intelligence project funded by Canadian Heritage. Her books include Bernard Shaw and China: Cross-Cultural Encounters (2007) and Bernard Shaw’s Bridges to Chinese Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). Kay has also published many articles in peer-reviewed journals, especially in SHAW: The Journal of Bernard Shaw Studies.