Heritage and Hollywood: Shaping human identity and gender from the Renaissance to the age of AI

The age of artificial intelligence (AI) is taking hold like an expanding universe and setting into motion the spawning of a new global culture. In parallel with these changes, humans interact with media messages steeped in visual and conversational language streamed across neural global platforms, with billions of humans participating. How is this tech-saturated environment impacting human and gender identity and aesthetics? This paper considers these issues, looking through the lens of the arts, from the past to the present and back again. A central theme is the personification of male and female symbolic characteristics. We see that arts and culture are an enduring and powerful influence across time and space, from Ancient Greece to the 21st century, juxtaposing rapid change in AI technology with time-tested symbols and personas of gender identity. This paper offers a visual journey of cultural transmission that exemplifies this fascinating dichotomy to both reveal and question, especially given recent years that have witnessed a significant surge of gender and cultural wars, and a defining moment for cultural heritage.