The answers were found in Bangalore at Swissnex in India, in Mumbai at the Swiss Consulate General, in New Delhi at the Embassy of Switzerland, in Osaka at Swissnex in Japan, in Seoul at the Science and Technology Office of the Embassy of Switzerland, in Shanghai at Swissnex in China, in Tokyo at the Science and Technology Office of the Embassy of Switzerland, and in Zurich at Cinema Filmpodium during the simultaneous screening of the film AI as a Friend: Does a Chatbot Relationship Really Work?, a documentary film produced by Swiss Radio and Television for the programme Einstein. The screening took place within the framework of the 6^th Global Science Film Festival. A panel discussion followed, where film makers, business leaders, journalists and scientists presented their views on the question of whether AI should fully replicate human capabilities and emotional intelligence.

(Header Image: Panel discussion in Zurich, with the Swissnex locations on screen © Swiss Science Film Academy)

The event was very well received. A participant in Japan said she is “hopeful that the connection between technology and people has unlimited possibilities in the field of medicine, such as psychological counselling, and early childhood education.” Another in Seoul said that “the line between artificial and real connection is becoming blurrier. It is a bit unsettling, but also very thought-provoking”. However, according to others, AI, in its current stage of development, is far from replacing humans and will not do so for a while. This was brought out beautifully by a researcher in the humanities on the cosmopolitan national, who was moved enough to write a poem on what she felt (reproduced below) during the screening in New Delhi.

The Global Science Film Festival is organised by the Swiss Science Film Academy, founded by Swiss scientists and filmmakers, with one passion “science communication through film”. Amongst the Swiss universities and research institutions associated with the Academy are the Universities of Zurich, Bern and Basel, the Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Franklin University, EAWAG, WSL, Life Science Zurich and Environmental Humanities Switzerland.

The Academy has tied up with the Swissnex network in Asia to make the Global Science Film Festival international and received an enthusiastic response. Despite not being a Swissnex location, the Swiss Consulate General in Mumbai joined forces in a spirit of collaboration. The event was a success and is testimony of the strength and teamwork of the Swissnex Network in Asia.

Dr Payel Chattopadhyay Mukherjee’s work focuses on Cosmopolitanism, Home, Colonial and Postcolonial Literature, Indian Nationalism, Women and Gender, History of Ideas, and South Asian Studies. She has written for several scholarly publications including Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures, South Asian Review, Journal of Human Values, Sahitya Akademi, Gandhi Marg to name a few, and has presented her research at academic forums like The European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (EACLALS), The South Asian Literary Association (SALA), Association for Asian Studies (AAS, USA) and Canadian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (CACLALS). Currently, she is a faculty member at the SSH department of IIIT Delhi and an adjunct professor at the Dept of English, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.