Celestial Narratives in the Age of AI: A Critical Review of Astronomy, Culture, and Language in Contemporary Literature

Abstract

This review critically examines the intersection of artificial intelligence, astronomy, and cultural narrative in contemporary literature and practice. While no single volume bears the exact title under review, the surveyed literature collectively maps a vibrant and contested field. The analysis synthesizes findings across four domains: the quasi-religious sacralization of AI in popular and anthropological discourse; the "stellar turn" in contemporary fiction and poetry, particularly the trope of astro-eisegesis and the poetics of extraterrestrial encounter; the operational transformation of astronomical practice through AI-driven scheduling and machine learning applied to historical star charts; and Indigenous-led interventions that reframe AI as cultural practice governed by training protocols and narrative sovereignty. The review identifies three unresolved tensions: the gap between AI's discursive sacralization and its material infrastructure; the risk that literary cosmopoetics reproduces the anthropocentrism it critiques; and the insufficient theorization of language politics in AI-mediated translation of ancient astronomical records. It argues that the most vital contributions refuse easy synthesis, insisting on the irreducibility of language, protocol, and Country to algorithmic operations. The celestial narrative proper to the AI age is thus not a single story but a contested space: the story of who gets to tell the story of the sky. The review concludes by calling for sustained dialogue across astronomy, literary studies, anthropology, and Indigenous knowledge systems.