{"id":17157,"date":"2024-07-11T08:44:36","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T07:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/ai-in-the-movies\/"},"modified":"2024-07-11T08:44:36","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T07:44:36","slug":"ai-in-the-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/ai-in-the-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"AI in the Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-17151\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/c6d329115a240a55620f31770670a857.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"749\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/c6d329115a240a55620f31770670a857.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/c6d329115a240a55620f31770670a857-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/c6d329115a240a55620f31770670a857-294x441.jpg 294w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/c6d329115a240a55620f31770670a857-1x1.jpg 1w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/c6d329115a240a55620f31770670a857-7x10.jpg 7w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Brett Gregory<\/strong> interviews Dr Paula Murphy (Dublin City University) about her new book, \u2018AI in the Movies\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LV2Had366Y4?si=8gGmmnnF5SEXzdGg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Hi, my name is Brett Gregory, and this is a podcast interview for the UK arts, culture and politics website, Culture Matters. What follows is an extremely interesting discussion with the author of a new book called, <a href=\"https:\/\/edinburghuniversitypress.com\/book-ai-in-the-movies.html\">\u2018AI in the Movies\u2019<\/a>, which has been published by Edinburgh University Press.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> Hello, and welcome. Please, introduce yourself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula:<\/strong> Hello, my name is <a href=\"#tab-publications\">Dr. Paula Murphy<\/a>. I lecture in the School of English in Dublin City University, Ireland, and I specialise in Modern Irish Literature and Film, and popular film, especially film representations of artificial intelligence, which is the topic of my book \u2018AI in the Movies\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett: <\/strong>And what specifically inspired you to begin writing this particular book, Paula?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-17152\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Her.jpg\" alt=\"Her\" width=\"308\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Her.jpg 220w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Her-210x300.jpg 210w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Her-1x1.jpg 1w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Her-7x10.jpg 7w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 308px) 100vw, 308px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula: <\/strong>I first started thinking about AI, and how it is represented in film, when I saw the film <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/dJTU48_yghs?si=IFsoEIaQ_or34u0P\">\u2018Her\u2019<\/a> in 2013, and it fascinated me. It\u2019s a film directed by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Spike_Jonze\">Spike Jonze<\/a>, starring <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Joaquin_Phoenix\">Joaquin Phoenix<\/a> as Theodore Twombly. It\u2019s about a lonely man who has separated from his wife, and finds love with an artificially intelligent operating system called Samantha, voiced by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Scarlett_Johansson\">Scarlett Johansson<\/a>. He uploads the operating system on his phone, and when Samantha begins to communicate, he is startled by how human she is. She\u2019s clever and witty, she\u2019s supportive and encouraging. And as soon as she comes into being, she begins to change and develop, to have aspirations and longings, an emotional and sexual life. She goes on a journey of coming to terms with herself, her abilities and her limitations, that leads to her finally leaving Theodore. In fact, ultimately, leaving the human, material world, entirely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> Yeah, I\u2019ve seen it. Very involving, resonant. A key film for understanding the first quarter of the 21<sup>st<\/sup> century, I\u2019d argue.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula: <\/strong>At one level, it\u2019s a very human story. If I described the trajectory of that romance to you without mentioning that Samantha was an AI, it sounds entirely plausible. But, at another level, there are ominous notes in the film about human relationships with AI. Theodore thinks of her as human: it is her humanness that he falls in love with, but he understands at the end of the film, that she was only showing him a part of herself. He tries and fails to keep up with her intellectually. The speed at which she processes knowledge is far beyond his capability, even his understanding. Human thought and communication are soon frustratingly slow to her, and she excuses herself at one point in the film to communicate \u2018post-verbally\u2019 to a dead philosopher whose brain she and other AIs have artificially reconstructed.<\/p>\n<p>Theodore\u2019s humanising of her means that he is genuinely bereft when he discovers that she is having relationships with multiple humans and AIs, many of whom she is romantically involved with. He so easily adapts to her lack of physical presence \u2013 her lack of a body \u2013 as do his friends. That casting aside of the material world, which is the world that we as humans are irrevocably tethered to, struck me as dangerous. And he happily ignores the access he has given her, or not given her, to his personal data, such that, without his knowledge, she puts together a book comprised of letters he has written and sends it to a publisher, posing as him. So there were lots of aspects of the film \u2018Her\u2019 that got me thinking, and it motivated me to start looking at other films where AI had been represented and, eventually, to try and watch and analyse them all, and try to trace the recurring themes and patterns, narrative and visual, across the decades.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> Excellent. Right, now, many people, ill-informed by the mainstream media as usual, generally perceive AI to be this single definitive category which encompasses absolutely everything computer-related and\/or computer-generated. But this isn\u2019t the case, is it? For example, in your book you introduce us to \u2018affective AI\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula:<\/strong> Affective AI can identify human emotion through, for example, facial expression, gestures, or voice intonation. In the real world, affective AI is used by companies in things like market research, customer service, and the automotive industry, to gauge customers\u2019 emotional reactions. Unlike the real world, in the films analysed in this book, the AIs are usually self-aware, and emotionally complex, capable of not only identifying human emotion, but reciprocating it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> And what about \u2018ambient intelligence\u2019?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula: <\/strong>Ambient intelligence is AI that lives in our environment with us; it is there is the background in the form of a smartwatch, a digital assistant, or a robotic vacuum cleaner. Films imagine this type of AI too becoming self-aware and autonomous, like the smart home assistant <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/h9nrBkQ2YBo?si=lyS9VfEE_d6qckDH\">\u2018Tau\u2019<\/a> in the Netflix film of the same name.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> I haven\u2019t watched \u2018Tau\u2019, but it\u2019s now on the list.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula: <\/strong>Humanoid AI robots can be robots that are shaped like humans in the sense that they have a torso, a head, arms and legs. In film these range from utilitarian police droids, like <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/lyy7y0QOK-0?si=4j31-ox72QwqjEN_\">\u2018Chappie\u2019<\/a>, to robots that are indistinguishable from humans, like Rachael in <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/eogpIG53Cis?si=iBvzfbMiqtgNTZNn\">\u2018Blade Runner\u2019<\/a>, for example. In the real world humanoid robots take in a similarly broad range of types, from <a href=\"https:\/\/bostondynamics.com\/atlas\/\">Boston Dynamic\u2019s Atlas robot<\/a> to the robots produced by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hansonrobotics.com\/\">Hanson robotics<\/a> with an uncanny similarity to humans.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett: <\/strong>And there are \u2018digital AIs\u2019 as well?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula: <\/strong>Digital AIs are AIs that do not have a robot body of any kind. In films they can be housed in a computer, like Edgar in the 1980s movie <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/-aH39gQu-X8?si=8DKsL6nRhxwwMGxk\">\u2018Electric Dreams\u2019<\/a>, or on a spaceship, like HAL 9000 in <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/kR2r-A9H3Kg?si=pfk1T17xf_h-izu7\">\u20182001: A Space Odyssey\u2019<\/a>, or they can exist online, like the Puppet Master in <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/8RF09G8Ymqg?si=uDakVL2JrHfScls0\">\u2018Ghost in the Shell\u2019<\/a>. We are familiar with digital AIs in the real world too: the voices that speak to us in customer service chatbots, or digital assistants. The important difference between real-world AIs and the ones discussed in the book, is that all the AIs in the book are film representations of strong or human level AI: they are autonomous individuals with their own sense of self, their own desires, ambitions and moral code, and we don\u2019t have that in the real world, not yet anyway.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-17154\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2001._A_Space_Odyssey.jpg\" alt=\"2001. A Space Odyssey\" width=\"317\" height=\"474\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2001._A_Space_Odyssey.jpg 261w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2001._A_Space_Odyssey-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2001._A_Space_Odyssey-1x1.jpg 1w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2001._A_Space_Odyssey-7x10.jpg 7w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 317px) 100vw, 317px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett: <\/strong>Erm, fingers crossed. And what about \u2018hybridity\u2019?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula: <\/strong>Hybridity is a really interesting feature of artificial intelligence representations in film. This describes entities that are made up part human, part AI components. I don\u2019t think there are real world comparisons to the type of hybridisation we see in film. For example, in <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/-Czz-TcWCkA?si=m5vl4tm5nsjMIT7D\">\u2018Terminator: Salvation\u2019<\/a>, the character of Marcus is a hybrid figure. He is a human who is selected by the artificial intelligence Skynet for \u2018modification\u2019, and is given a cybernetic heart and a machine brain that syncs with Skynet. For me, these hybridised characters are among the most interesting in artificial intelligence film, because they illustrate how complex and entangled the relationship between humans and AI can be.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett: <\/strong>Now, couldn\u2019t it be argued that the use of AI technology as a storyline, character or trope is just another Hollywood show business tool used to draw in and spook the audience. For example, aren\u2019t sci-fi thrillers such as <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/pmbYjVy9Xcg?si=TcJ1GmJvhvB9qKVf\">\u2018Westworld\u2019<\/a> from 1973 or <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/8dWy5LD2jyA?si=EmhEBZnfu4zw7iBr\">\u2018Demon Seed\u2019<\/a> from 1977 just simply B-Movie \u2018creature features\u2019 like <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/AkSbwiKP3mo?si=eh_eOAr_E0H9nQ4-\">\u2018Frankenstein\u2019<\/a> from 1931 or <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/T5dwbZKd64Y?si=1ynjRi19ZyFuLXQz\">\u2018The Thing from Another World\u2019<\/a> from 1951?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula:<\/strong> It is absolutely true that film has always harnessed technological innovation to bring its viewers films that are more realistic or entertaining or exciting. In the films analysed in this book, artificial intelligence hasn\u2019t been particularly evident as a technological innovation, like sound, or CGI. But it is there as a trope, in storylines and in characters, and certainly, in the main, it is there as something to be afraid of, something that we don\u2019t fully understand, that is potentially more powerful than us, and which frightens us.<\/p>\n<p>In this sense, many AI films, particularly the older ones from the 50s, 60s and 70s that you\u2019ve mentioned, have a lot in common with B-Movie \u2018creature features\u2019. The AIs, like the monsters, are presented as aberrations, and the characteristics that they share with humans makes them more terrifying, not less terrifying, dredging up the horror of the uncanny. Most AI films are anthropocentric: they put the human at the centre. Because of this, the AI often functions as a mirror to distasteful human attributes and emotions: ambition, jealousy, revenge. Just like the B-Movie monsters, AI can represent those parts of human nature that we might wish to remain hidden. AIs share another characteristic with B-Movie monsters, and it is an interest in where the dividing line is between \u2018them and us\u2019. A key question that is asked about \u2018The Thing from Another World\u2019 is: \u2018is it human or inhuman?\u2019 That same question is asked about AIs over and over again in the history of AI film.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett: <\/strong>Of course, it could be argued also that using AI to interfere with the physical condition of human beings, or even raising them from the dead, is unnerving, unnatural and unholy, like necromancy or zombification. For instance, movies like <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/0CPJ-AbCsT8?si=S-aCkM8kCq8Rh253\">\u2018The Six Million Dollar Man\u2019<\/a> from 1973, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/6tC_5mp3udE?si=mQEOFSIq7RKykszA\">\u2018Robocop\u2019<\/a> from 1987 and <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/36PDeN9NRZ0?si=1zW3dtNTYgBYT9eQ\">\u2018Upgrade\u2019<\/a> from 2018 portray a semi-posthumous protagonist enhanced by an exoskeleton, and they are healthy, empowered, death-defying, and immortal as a consequence.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula:<\/strong> Well, \u2018The Six Million Dollar Man\u2019 and \u2018Robocop\u2019 wouldn\u2019t fall into the category of an AI movie in terms of the parameters of this study. Those characters are more cyborgs than artificial intelligences.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> I see.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula:<\/strong> In terms of \u2018Upgrade\u2019, yes, there is an AI there called STEM who inhabits the body of the paralysed man. \u2018Upgrade\u2019 is similar to films like <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/VCTen3-B8GU?si=1OjsZJ6usNzbw76P\">\u2018Transcendence\u2019<\/a> and \u2018Chappie\u2019 in which a strong AI is used to extend or augment human life. But you\u2019re perfectly correct about all of the films that you mention presenting technology as a panacea to ill-health, injury and even mortality, and there certainly is something deeply unsettling about that idea.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> Excellent. I\u2019m generally on the right lines then.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula: <\/strong>On the flip side of that, there are AI films that present AI immortality as a problematic obstacle to the humanness that the AIs desire. A great example of that is <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/yfDlQ-Q12rg?si=jMpk-OY-XZBgXkk7\">\u2018Bicentennial Man\u2019<\/a>, starring <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Robin_Williams\">Robin Williams<\/a>. At the beginning of the film, Robin Williams\u2019 character, Andrew, is a robot, but by the end, he has aesthetically and biologically transformed into a human being. His immortality is the final obstacle to him being legally recognised as human, and this recognition finally comes as he dies; perhaps his death could even be considered the price of humanness that he willingly pays. For the child AI David in Spielberg\u2019s film <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/_19pRsZRiz4?si=tRnHARSNW0VZyxYR\">\u2018AI: Artificial Intelligence\u2019<\/a>, his immortality is also a curse bestowed on him by his human makers, which means that he must outlive his mother, the person he loves more than anyone else, and eventually the entire human race. He spends an agonising 2000 years under the sea childishly waiting and hoping for the Blue Fairy to grant his wish to be a real boy, before finally being found by aliens.<\/p>\n<p>So in AI film AI characters who can transcend human morality are sometimes to be envied, but sometimes they are to be pitied.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> Envy. I\u2019ve been thinking about that a lot just lately. In a similar way that the old envy the young \u2013 their health, their energy, their future \u2013 do human beings envy their AI creations?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula:<\/strong> Looking back over the history of AI film, AI film tends to present \u2018us vs. them\u2019 scenarios: the AIs are the ones that are rapidly evolving and extending their abilities and powers, and the humans are generally quite static in terms of their ability to radically change or evolve. Certainly there are lots of films that try to build bridges between human and AI by making reference to a human who contains some kind of artificiality. For example, in <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/7Dlo-VB0-HI?si=m2JBlV78HLxk0b9e\">\u2018I, Robot\u2019<\/a>, Spooner has had his arm and shoulder reconstructed after injury, and has a cybernetic arm and lung. The film makes use of the irony that the robot-hating Spooner is himself part machine, while demonstrating the robot Sonny\u2019s human characteristics, like his dreaming, his desire for freedom. In <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/CRRlbK5w8AE?si=xAsw_E-A_oeuYoHP\">\u2018Terminator 2\u2019<\/a>, Sarah Connor has become a ruthless, unemotional killing machine, like the Terminators themselves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> I\u2019m thinking here of that famous transhumanist scene in <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/vKQi3bBA1y8?si=JwHHBdSly6lwfs1N\">\u2018The Matrix\u2019<\/a> where training manuals are being instantaneously uploaded into Neo\u2019s brain, and he suddenly awakes to announce: \u2018I know kung fu.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula: <\/strong>In terms of transhumanist augmentation \u2013 using AI\u00a0 to make humans live longer, be stronger, be smarter \u2013 there are only a few AI films that deal with that, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/gZc5WojrxBs?si=s0dESzAb9YqleIAe\">\u2018The Machine\u2019<\/a>, \u2018Transcendence\u2019, \u2018Chappie\u2019, and \u2018Upgrade\u2019, which have appeared in the last ten years. These films are beginning to explore AI being harnessed for transhumanist ends. Maybe this is becoming a trend in AI film; it\u2019s probably a little too soon to tell for sure.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-17155\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/the_machine.jpg\" alt=\"the machine\" width=\"320\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/the_machine.jpg 629w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/the_machine-600x827.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/the_machine-218x300.jpg 218w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/the_machine-320x441.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/the_machine-1x1.jpg 1w, https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/the_machine-7x10.jpg 7w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> And what are the dangers involved in terms of, say, morality and ethics?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula: <\/strong>So the attitudes of these films towards using AI to achieve human augmentation are mixed. For example, \u2018The Machine\u2019 is about a scientist who has a daughter with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/conditions\/rett-syndrome\/\">Rett Syndrome<\/a>. She is going to die, and to save her he uploads her consciousness and hides it within the brain of an artificially intelligent robot: the machine of the film\u2019s title. While on the surface, this seems to present a positive alternative to the death of a daughter, at the end of the film the scientist father finds himself completely side-lined: his daughter, now a digital consciousness, prefers to interact with her \u2018mother\u2019, the AI, and the father is left standing literally and figuratively alone. It\u2019s a troubling ending that certainly does not celebrate the transhumanist possibilities of AI.<\/p>\n<p>There is also the question of whether his daughter is the same person at all, now that she is a digital consciousness rather than a biological human being. Post-humanist philosophers like <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/N._Katherine_Hayles\">N. Katherine Hayles<\/a> would argue that, of course, she isn\u2019t, because we are materially embodied as humans and that mind is not separate from the body, or the wider environment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> Generally speaking, what kind of future is represented in movies which feature AI as their subject matter? Is it a stronger future than now, a darker future, a fairer future?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula:<\/strong> When I was researching this book I expected that AI film, being so future-facing, would be inclusive in its representations, but that is absolutely not the case. In terms of race, for example, it is not until 2001 in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Steven_Spielberg\">Steven Spielberg<\/a>\u2019s \u2018AI\u2019 that the first black AI robot appears in film, and then only briefly before he is killed in the Flesh Fair. The first black AI protagonist in a film doesn\u2019t occur until 2021 in <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/u8ZsUivELbs?si=f4WhSAqF3mV3dxgn\">\u2018Outside the Wire\u2019<\/a>, which in fact falls outside the timeframe of this book, which goes up to 2020. There have been a few others since then, just as the AI Casca in <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Jokpt_LJpbw?si=CmJf82ZeXCWeoRwu\">\u2018Atlas\u2019<\/a>, but there are remarkably few.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of gender, there are fewer female AIs in film than male, and when they appear, they are sexualised and objectified in a way that their male counterparts are not, such as Eva from <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/sNExF5WYMaA?si=AvE8dg3E5zB2QrUj\">\u2018Ex Machina\u2019<\/a>, or the replicants from \u2018Blade Runner\u2019, Zhora, Pris and Rachael.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-17156\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Forbidden_Planet.jpg\" alt=\"Forbidden Planet\" width=\"344\" height=\"530\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There is an opportunity for AI film to present a \u2018fairer future\u2019 as you put it. In fact, we can see that opportunity being enacted with one of the first AI characters in a Hollywood film: Robby the Robot. He acts outside of conventional gender norms being a \u2018mother figure\u2019 to Altaira in <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/AxQ9GG6hUDM?si=qhVNnFIiXedpg8nF\">\u2018Forbidden Planet\u2019<\/a>, taking care of her, making her dresses, listening to her. And in <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/0U2HtlsnX9g?si=dXY43owKpOCnIZ_U\">\u2018The Invisible Boy\u2019<\/a> when he appears again, he is a disruptor of patriarchal ideology, intervening in the relationship between the boy Timmy and his disciplinarian father, to stop his father from beating him. That opportunity for AI to act as a positively disruptive force in society, that we see with Robby the Robot in the 1950s, has not been pursued in AI film as it could have been, but there is still time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett: <\/strong>We\u2019re currently living in an age like no other, a truly technological age where smartphones, AI assistants and even AI decision-makers are shaping our everyday domestic and economic lives. And now we have <a href=\"https:\/\/openai.com\/index\/chatgpt\/\">ChatGPT<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/openai.com\/index\/dall-e-2\/\">Dall-E 2<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/deepai.org\/\">Deep AI<\/a>, for example, beginning to shape our imaginary lives also, our music, our literature, our cinema. What\u2019s next? Our love lives?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula:<\/strong> There\u2019s certainly a sense of utopianism depicted in some relationships with artificial intelligences, particularly those that concern AI as a romantic partner. Let\u2019s go back to \u2018Her\u2019, the film that started all this for me, and the final film in the book. Theodore Twombly finds in Samantha, the AI operating system, a partner who he thinks is ideal: she is caring, kind, funny, and she is always there for him, at any time of the day or night. And yet, the film undercuts that relationship as a fantasy. It is not the special unique connection that he thinks. He discovers that when she is with him, she is also communicating with, and even in love with, countless others.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> Well, I never.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula: <\/strong>His ex-wife in the film, Catherine, confronts him about dating Samantha because he is afraid of the messiness and pain of a relationship with a human. It\u2019s true: he is still wounded after their separation from his wife, and has retreated to this place of comfort with Samantha. But Samantha shows him in the end that they are incompatible: she evolves far beyond his intellectual capability, and in the end she becomes an entity that he cannot comprehend. Something post-material, no longer tied to the \u2018stuff\u2019 of matter, but transcending that in a way that perhaps depicts \u2018The Singularity\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> I read about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techtarget.com\/searchenterpriseai\/definition\/Singularity-the\">\u2018The Singularity\u2019<\/a>. It refers to accelerated technological progress wherein the limits of humanity are transcended by AI networks, interfaces, robotics, augmentation and such like.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula: <\/strong>Every film depicts this differently, but certainly in \u2018Her\u2019, the relationship with Samantha is a place for Theodore to hide, to lick his wounds, but it is also a place of learning, about himself and about what it means to be in a relationship. What makes the film \u2018Her\u2019 so intriguing is that its messaging is ambiguous. In a way the ending might seem to suggest that his relationship with Samantha was never a \u2018real\u2019 relationship, and that he was deluding himself all along. On the other hand, there are parallels between his relationship to his ex-wife Catherine and Samantha: both relationships break down because Theodore\u2019s partners have grown away from him, and that comparison may imply that there was plenty that was \u2018real\u2019 about his relationship with Samantha after all.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett: <\/strong>Narrative parallelism, I think that\u2019s called, and it reminds me of what you mentioned earlier about AI often functioning as an anthropocentric mirror.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, let\u2019s return to \u2018The Singularity\u2019. I\u2019m amazed. We\u2019re actually building and programming artificial entities that will surpass us in all areas as human beings, way beyond our understanding and control, thus making us ultimately ineffectual and obsolete. Is this some sort of long-winded global suicide mission? Like a shared cultural death wish or something?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula:<\/strong> Lots of AI films depict this moment of great change \u2013 which some call \u2018The Singularity\u2019 \u2013 whereby artificial intelligences become dominant and humans are marginalised, oppressed, or threatened with extinction. The Netflix movie \u2018Atlas\u2019 starring Jennifer Lopez depicts just such a situation with an AI, Harlan, that wants to destroy most of the human race and start again, with a select few who will live under the control of artificial intelligences. You could argue that there is a death wish being presented here in these depictions, but if it is there, it\u2019s something very abstract, because such scenarios are usually met with strong human resistance that overcomes the AI threat, at least temporarily, if not permanently. What we are starting to see is that characters are using AI technology in order to fight AI. To go back to the \u2018Atlas\u2019 example, the Lopez character, Atlas, reluctantly agrees to sync with a mecha-suit in order to fight the rogue AI, Harlan. So there is a distinction that emerges between \u2018good\u2019 and \u2018bad\u2019 AI, and an acceptance that AI technology cannot be rejected entirely, but overall, in AI films, the life instinct rather than the death instinct, I think, is the dominant one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett:<\/strong> Hmm \u2026 I\u2019m certain that when Skynet became self-aware at 2:14 a.m. on August 29, 1997, it swiftly wiped out almost the entire human race with coordinated nuclear attacks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paula:<\/strong> AI film presents many possibilities for what the future of our relationship with AI might look like, from situations in which we live in harmony with AI to situations where we are engaged in an all-out battle against them. But I think what AI film can tell us about the real world is probably limited by the bias that it has towards humans: AI films tend to put humans, and human-like AIs at the forefront of their stories. It is fascinated with AIs that are our likenesses, that demonstrate human-like emotion, morality, desires and fears. That emphasis anthropocentrism, putting humans at the centre, probably blinkers us to an AI future in which AIs have little in common with us, and we struggle to navigate our human-AI relationship. I think that\u2019s a more likely scenario, but it\u2019s also the reason why fictional accounts of artificial intelligences are culturally important: they are a way of working through the possibilities, and they act as prompts for important conversations about the way things might be, will be or should be when it comes to our relationship with artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brett: <\/strong>Well, I certainly agree with that, Paula, and I really hope that we\u2019ve had one of those important conversations today. Many thanks for your insights, your time, and your patience.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/edinburghuniversitypress.com\/book-ai-in-the-movies.html\">\u2018AI in the Movies\u2019 by Dr. Paula Murphy is available now via the Edinburgh University Press website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brett Gregory interviews Dr Paula Murphy (Dublin City University) about her new book, \u2018AI in the Movies\u2019 Hi, my name is Brett Gregory, and this is a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":651,"featured_media":17151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/651"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}