What has changed is that audiences now have their own experience of talking to a machine. A scene that felt like pure fantasy ten years ago can now feel uncomfortably familiar.
We will keep this list updated as new works arrive. Tell us what we missed; reader suggestions have shaped many of our past lists.
Our picks
For younger readers and viewers, several of these picks make a good starting point for conversations about technology, privacy and fairness at home or in the classroom.
- Best for a first introduction
- Best for a long weekend
- The underrated pick
- The classic everyone cites
What it gets right
Stories about artificial intelligence are older than computers. They have always been less about machines than about us: our fears of being replaced, our hopes of being understood, our questions about what makes a person.
The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.
Edsger W. Dijkstra
The best works in this list do not try to predict the future. They take one idea seriously and follow it to an emotional conclusion, which is often more revealing than any forecast.
The verdict
Some of these picks have aged badly in their details. The technology looks wrong, the interfaces are clunky. But the human questions at their centre still hold up remarkably well.
We chose works that are easy to find on major platforms or in libraries. Availability changes by country, so check your local services.
