In a distant sense, I find the Culture series of novels to be an inspiring vision of the future. People develop AI and technology to master nature on a planetary scale, and largely live peaceful, happy lives.
In a nearby sense, I am inspired every time I do random household chores, by thinking that maybe AI and robots will be able to do this soon. Folding clothes, picking up toys, putting things away where they go, cooking dinner, putting the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, putting the clean dishes away on the shelves, taking out the trash, driving to the corner store to pick up a fresh baguette.
I second this, AI in the Culture series is the most positive example I've read. It's notable that AI co-exist with humans everywhere in Banks' novels—unlike say Star Trek, where Data is a rare outlier.
Star Trek is good too. Particularly once you get into the ship computer and holodeck concepts. But Banks writes so specifically about about what it would be like for a civilization to thrive working together with strong ai.
The books together form a loose philosophy that is like Seinfeld for AI conversations.
In a nearby sense, I am inspired every time I do random household chores, by thinking that maybe AI and robots will be able to do this soon. Folding clothes, picking up toys, putting things away where they go, cooking dinner, putting the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, putting the clean dishes away on the shelves, taking out the trash, driving to the corner store to pick up a fresh baguette.