The subject of Artificial Intelligence never seems far from the headlines, whether it’s striking Hollywood actors and writers who are worried about how A.I. could affect their craft and careers, or the government setting up a global summit to regulate its safety, concerns are mounting and widespread. Therefore Andrew Stein’s new play Disruption couldn’t be a more timely exploration of the possibilities and potential of A.I. and acts as a portent for its moral ambiguity.
The protagonist Nick, a tech genius and entrepreneur, has arrived back in New York and invited three of his oldest friends and their partners to dinner. The couples Ben and Suzie, Paul and Jill, and Mia (Jill’s sister) and Barry are introduced on receiving their invitations, which are met with excitement from the men about meeting an old friend and with a mixture of trepidation and skepticism from their wives, as one wryly obverses that “he is kryptonite to marriage”.
After being reunited with the old friends and receiving a mixed response from some, Nick introduces the group to an unexpected guest, a young women called Raven who turns out to be his business partner and fellow tech genius, rather than his date.