Updated sci-fi play wrestles with seduction of AI

In the rewritten National Memory Project, citizens' memories are collected to be fed into an AI model designed to understand the nation

- Shawn Hoo

Playwright Johnny Jon Jon thinks his 2012 play National Memory Project has not stood the test of time.

In it, the state embarks on a project to collate memories from all its citizens for future reference, transforming the sensuous realm of life into a cold block of nostalgia.

Today, he thinks that nostalgia is no longer as central to understanding such a comprehensive data collection programme, which more urgently calls to mind the swathes of data used to train the likes of ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek and Gemini.

"It immediately came to me that it had to be about artificial intelligence (AI)," he says.

So, he has rewritten the script and amped up the science-fiction quality of the play, which will be staged at the Drama Centre Black Box from June 25 to 29.

In the updated version, the Memory Corps collects citizens' memories to feed an AI model designed to understand the nation better than humans ever could.