MACH 33 Festival Sparks Conversations on AI, Ethics, and Storytelling

A tech executive dies in a self-driving company car. A humanoid AI robot serves as the family caregiver for an aging parent. These premises were explored in two original plays developed and presented at MACH 33: The Caltech Festival of New Science-Driven Plays, which centered around artificial intelligence for its 2025 season.

Now in its 13th year, MACH 33 pairs independent playwrights with science advisors from Caltech and NASA's JPL, which is managed by Caltech, to develop plays that are grounded in science or technology and benefit from targeted expertise. The Null Test, written by Ashley Quach and advised by Caltech Professor of Philosophy Frederick Eberhardt, centers around a fatal accident involving a self-driving car and the following court case, in which the culpability—and agency—of the algorithm is examined. "It was quite intelligent of MACH 33 to pair me with an ethicist," Quach says. "You get very different perspectives on AI if you're talking with an engineer or a data scientist. A philosopher provided the perfect balance to discuss the issues I explored in my play."

Dementia Doula, written by Tom Lavagnino and advised by Joel Burdick, Caltech's Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering and JPL research scientist along with his graduate student Solvin Sigurdson, imagines a scenario in which an AI caregiving robot becomes part of a family's life as they confront a loved one's aging and memory loss. While Lavagnino says he drew inspiration for the play from his personal experience sourcing a caregiver for his father with Lewy body dementia, Burdick and Sigurdson helped ground the portrayal of the embodied AI robot.

"We thought about what is possible for a robot to do today or in the near future so that when someone sees the show, they are interacting more closely with science fact than science fiction," Sigurdson says. However, the science advisors also caution that some portrayals in the show—like the ability for one robot to perform well across many different tasks, or "generalizability"—are still challenges within the field.

Each of the two plays was presented as a staged reading featuring a combined cast of Caltech students, community members, and Los Angeles actors. In addition, the festival included "Storytelling for the Future: A Symposium on AI, Ethics, and Playwriting," featuring a panel discussion between the playwrights and science advisors and moderated by Travis Cloyd, producer in residence at CalArts and CEO of media company Worldwide XR. At the symposium, the panelists discussed their experiences working together and exploring scientific and creative ideas.

Eberhardt remarked that when he was first asked to serve as a science advisor, he imagined something akin to "fixing the physics of the story," like explaining how gravity might work on a flat planet. "But that wasn't what I was doing as a science advisor at all," he said. "The interactions I had with Ashley were at a much higher level about the science and ethical implications. We discussed concepts to clarify the background considerations relative to her story, such as What is the role of AI? What is agency for artificial intelligence? And at what point do we think about a moral status for an AI?"

The panelists dove deeper into similar ethical questions during the symposium, expressing varying perspectives and levels of optimism regarding the future of AI. Quach shared her concerns about the risks associated with AI advancement, especially in a context where a small number of highly powerful people make impactful decisions with limited regulations.

"There's this way of speaking about progress in the tech industry where they talk about it as if it's gravity, it is inevitable, it is a course of nature," Quach said. "For me, [AI advancement] is not really a moral or ethical question, it's just about slowing down. Can we please have conversations about the risks? Can we be responsible to each other?"

Burdick and Sigurdson emphasized the potential benefits of AI and robotics, especially in the context of health care, as explored in Lavagnino's play. Burdick said his research experience developing robotic exoskeletons that support patients with spinal cord injuries gave him insight into the ways technology can be helpful as well as into the regulatory process.

"I had to go sit in front of the FDA panel, and the process was simpler than you would expect," Burdick said. "They try to figure out what is the risk to the patients and what's the benefit or the reward to the patients. In terms of AI, we are learning about the risks, but I don't think we fully understand them right now. The question in my mind is, How do we figure out those risks and rewards on a timescale and in a way that will prevent too much damage from happening and emphasize the benefits?"

Eberhardt recommended that the ideal way to "build ethics into AI" would be by considering the final intended application of a technology. "I don't think you build [ethics] in from the ground up," he said. "The context and deployment of the AI or algorithm will influence the ethical and moral considerations. But that becomes difficult when the tools are increasingly generalized and not developed with a particular application in mind."

The panelists agreed that even with the life-changing benefits AI can provide in certain contexts, regulation of the technology is vital to mitigate risks and protect human health, well-being, and safety. An additional risk they discussed was the potential for people to over-rely on AI and lose valuable skills—which brought the conversation to the nature of creativity.

"AI can be a wonderful tool, but I think it can also tempt you into losing some foundational skills that might be really important," Sigurdson said. "Depending on what you're trying to do, you need to think critically about whether you should be relying on this tool or not. Especially as a researcher, it's really important that you know your foundations, because if you don't know those things, how are you going to create the next thing and generate something completely novel?"

Quach shared her experience writing The Null Test: "There is really something magical in allowing yourself to make the mistake and to have the bad idea and to write the bad drafts. Because it makes you stronger, you get better every single time you do it."

The playwrights also questioned whether AI-created art could be meaningful to humans. "Is it possible for an AI story to be as legitimate and as fulfilling an experience to read as one written by a human being?" Lavagnino asked. "I think the jury's still out on that. We'll see what happens. I mean, I certainly have never read an AI-generated story that can compare to anything written by a human being yet."

"I think it really does depend on the reader," Quach reflected. "When it comes down to it, you as the reader are the person who determines the value. If you find value in a story you've read, I cannot question that. That is your personal relationship to the work, if it gives you something that you can take away into your life."

She continued: "But then for the writer, it's different, because what is the point of writing a story besides compulsion? I don't even have an answer for this myself. Why? What is the value? What is the purpose? I do know that in the process of writing, it's kind of like breaking open a piñata. You don't know when you approach a subject what you're going to get. You're just harvesting pieces of yourself, little nuggets from your memory and from your subconscious that you're getting to interact with yourself in a different way. And you're getting to heal yourself, and you're getting to express yourself, and you're getting to connect with people that you love. And for me, that's a tremendous mission."

MACH 33 is led by artistic director Brian Brophy, the director of Theater Arts at Caltech (TACIT); associate artistic director Arden Thomas; and Cole Remmen, who is the program director for Launchpad, a new early-development play lab operating within MACH 33. The MACH 33 festival is made possible by generous donations to Theater Arts at Caltech.