Intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Body Politics in Manjula Padmanabhan’ s play Harvest

Abstract

Manjula Padmanabhan is a famous Indian author, playwright, and journalist. Her play Harvest, published in 1997, won Greece's first-ever Onassis Award for theatre. This play is about Om Prakash, a jobless Indian married man who agrees to sell his organs to a foreign company. In the play, Manjula Padmanabhan focuses on how Third-world body commodification is done through AI. We encounter a virtual figure named Ginni who controls Om, his wife Jaya, and his family through a virtual device called the Contact module. Here, AI is used for surveillance where the rich individuals who rent the body of Om's constantly monitor via AI-based surveillance system. The system ensures that each individual in the family is adhering to certain protocols set by them and controlling their personal choices. This use of AI amplifies the exploitation of vulnerable bodies, especially women with the focus of child bearing. One of the disturbing impacts of the intersection between AI and body politics in Harvest is the loss of individual autonomy. The play suggests that when AI takes over the management of the body, human beings lose control over their own lives. It is not about enhancing human capability, but rather stripping individuals of their autonomy, reducing them to mere instruments for First-world profit. Thus, intersection of AI and body politics illustrates the potential for technology to reinforce social hierarchies through the bodies.