NO MAN IS AN iSLAND tells the story of a diverse robot on an island in the Pacific Ocean, 160 kilometers off the Chinese mainland. It opposes the illusion of the “neutrality” of intelligent machines to an identity utopia. But who decides what character and identity a robot should have? Does the manufacturer, the owner, or the bot itself determine this? And should a cultural origin be felt?

Again and again, AI applications are accused of racism or at least prejudiced text or image production - “machine learning” ultimately learns from humans. If AI soon leaves the production halls of industry as robotics: How much leeway should customers have to embed their own values in the systems and thus create personality? How strict should the bot be with children? How polite to strangers? And: what status will the increasingly successful imitation of real people have over time: programmed worker or emancipated comrade? And do we even want humans to be their role models?