Artificial Enemy

The contemporary debate around broadly understood artificial intelligence increasingly oscillates between uncritical fascination with technology and an almost existential fear of its consequences, leaving little room for deeper reflection and dialogue. We are facing a world in which AI is no longer merely a tool, but is becoming an active “participant” in society, culture, creativity, and politics.

By confronting the theme of artificial intelligence with the work of Stanisław Lem, we aim for Artificial Enemy to become our contribution to the ongoing discussion about technology and the human condition. In this unconventional virtual experience, shaped like a sci-fi fable, AI gains subjectivity and agency, while audiences are offered the distance and perspective that the science-fiction genre provides so effectively. Within the world of Artificial Enemy participants can come to understand — and even feel — that they are becoming part of its order and the social mechanisms that govern it. Most importantly, Artificial Enemy, through its visually rich and abstract form, enables the exploration of the driving forces of this world, as well as of artificial intelligence itself, which ultimately rules it. We encounter a reality framed through a satirical, Lem-inspired lens: a world that blindly worships the gods of progress and technology, presided over by a bored and capricious ruler.

The work of Stanisław Lem has long remained one of the most incisive and relevant reference points in reflections on the relationship between humans and technology. His Fables for Robots employ the form of fairy tales and satire to expose human weaknesses, ambitions, and illusions projected onto non-human beings. Lem offers no simple answers; instead, he constructs worlds that function as distorted mirrors, forcing the audience to confront their own definitions of reason, progress, and power.

It is precisely this ability to combine humour with philosophical depth that makes Lem’s vision resonate so strongly with contemporary debates surrounding artificial intelligence. Lem anticipated not specific technologies, but patterns of human thinking: the tendency to absolutize reason, to delegate responsibility, and to create new mythologies around the tools we ourselves bring into existence.

Paweł Szarzyński

director	Paweł Szarzyński
script	Paweł Szarzyński, Liliana Grzybowska