Concepts Behind Clips: Cinema to Teach the Science of Artificial Intelligence to undergraduate medical students

As artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more integrated into the field of healthcare, medical students need to learn the foundational AI literacy. Yet, traditional, descriptive teaching methods of AI topics are often ineffective in engaging the learners. This article introduces a new application of cinema to teaching AI concepts in medical education. With meticulously chosen movie clips from “Enthiran (Tamil)/Robot (Hindi)/Robo (Telugu)” movie, the students were introduced to the primary differences between Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and Artificial Superintelligence (ASI). This method triggered encouraging responses of students, with learners indicating greater conceptual clarity and heightened interest. Film as an emotive and visual medium not only makes difficult concepts easy to understand but also encourages curiosity, ethical consideration, and higher-order thought. This pedagogic intervention demonstrates how narrative-based learning can make abstract AI systems more relatable and clinically relevant for future physicians. Beyond technical content, the method can offer opportunities to cultivate critical engagement with ethical and practical dimensions of AI in healthcare. Integrating film into AI instruction could bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and clinical application, offering a compelling pathway to enrich medical education in a rapidly evolving digital age.