Writer’s note

I loved the endless possibilities the concept of A.I.s offered. Once I started thinking about what to write, idea after idea kept popping into my head. After a few months, I had written all kinds of scenes and experimented with different types of characters ranging from the serious to the absurd. Seeing the scenes performed on stage was a truly fascinating experience for me and I hope watching the scenes will be as fun as it was for me to write them. If you laugh or if you enjoy yourself during the play, know it was all due to the collective effort of the drama team: the actors and the actresses, the set and prop crew, and the directors. They are the ones that make the scenes come to life and they are the ones that I’m glad to have worked with for the past school year. Also, shoutout to the other writers that wrote a scene in the play! Their scenes gave me new content to consume and inspiration to write better scenes. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the play!
Yuxin Jiang

Director’s note

On May 11, 1997, a significant milestone in AI history was recorded when IBM’s Deep Blue beat Grandmaster Garry Kasparov, the reigning world chess champion. Almost two decades later, DeepMind’s AlphaGo triumphed over Go champion, Lee Se-Dol, in mid-March 2016. Lee subsequently announced his retirement in November 2019, stating that “AI is an entity that cannot be defeated.” Fast forward to January 5, 2021, OpenAI’s DALL·E 2 emerged, employing the Transformer technology to craft realistic images and art simply from natural language descriptions using GPT-3.

These remarkable advances sparked an idea. I challenged my students to envision a world where Artificial Intelligence was an everyday reality in areas like caregiving and personal assistance. We immersed ourselves in films, documentaries, YouTube videos, and online content showcasing the AI journey and its potential profound societal implications. Our exploration revolved around AI’s capability to express emotions, its creative potential, and the intriguing question of AI consciousness.

Starting from August 2022, the students have been engaged in dynamic improvisation sessions, scene-drafting workshops, and heated discussions about the play you are about to witness. Little did we anticipate that ChatGPT would take the world by storm on November 30, 2022. How will AI evolve in the future? We don’t know. It’s a realm where only science fiction dares to look into, exploring the endless possibilities. And that’s precisely what “What’s Left of Us?” offers – a compelling science fiction anthology on Artificial Intelligence. Sit back and join us on this exciting journey into the unknown.
Dimitris Timpilis