AI and the Future of Gender Fluidity in Social Transformation: An Analysis of Kalki 2898 AD

Abstract

Films are praised as literary narratives capable of reflecting society, and this paper examines the increasing trend in cinema of exploring gender fluidity in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on the recent successful film Kalki 2898 AD (2024), directed by Nag Ashwin. The integration between artificial intelligence (AI) and gender identity presented with a mythological background is an exceptionally captivating area of investigation especially against the background of impending social transformation. The paper uses Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Theory from
“A Cyborg Manifesto” to show how solidly conventional binary notions about identification are disrupted by gender fluidity among different characters, this signifies that there is a possibility for crises in selfhood and post-gender identity. Ahead in the paper, Cary Wolfe’s theories on posthumanism help to understand better how Kalki articulates the breakdown of human-machine divides signifying new forms of being beyond traditional humanist paradigms. This paper also examines the views of Marxist feminists regarding labour and connects it with the portrayal
of gender commodification in AI-oriented society presented in the film. In this sense, gender elasticity can be interpreted as a kind of resistance against emerging capitalist structures that are planning to define and dominate human identities. Being a speculative fiction, Kalki 2898 AD is a crucial work for discussing how AI intersects with gender identity and social transition in a dystopian future. The paper thus comments on unchecked technological advancement’s possible effects on gender roles, identity, and society at large.