Science Fiction has been a genre in the film almost since the beginning. From Fritz Lang’s groundbreaking 1927 film, Metropolis, to the Star Wars franchise, the proliferation of movies made in this area has seen an evolution as it changes with the times. These films typically feature advanced gadgetry or machines, but leave the human element more or less the same. More recently however, with the current rapid growth of modern software technology, more and more films are exploring the possibility of a future or a present where there are human-like automata. Alex Garland’s Ex Machina presents an in-depth view of a singular machine, while Alex Proyas’s film I, Robot offers a view of a hypothetical where machines are omni-present in society. Even though AI is generally viewed in an unfavorable light, the way films examine it is fascinating.
Ex Machina is a meditation of the psychology of AI and it illustrates this though a detailed account of one machine, Ava. Artificial Intelligence is described as a type of awareness that is displayed by machines rather than an organic creature such as an animal or a human. The film, through detailed and emphatically scientific test sessions, raises a couple of possibilities when it comes to dealing with an entity that has the characteristics of a human being, but it in itself is clearly not human. Ava is shown to have an objective in the film of connecting and interacting with the person who is picked to test her, Caleb, but in the end, abandons this relationship in favor of escaping the confines of the testing facility she is kept in. The idea of AI here is to for Ava to develop independent responses that match the main objective of connecting and interacting with Caleb. Ava, however, appears to have another goal. Although Ava’s objective is not explicitly stated in the film, but given Ava’s ultimate actions, it appears that Ava’s objective was to simply escape. Artificial Intelligence in Ex Machina is generally presented as having a specific programmed goal in mind, and to do the most possible to execute such goal. However, unless it was programmed to do so, AI should not change anything else in the outside world that is not necessary for the purposes of completion of its intentions. If we assume Ava’s goal is to escape and to integrate into the human social system, then the actions she does to get there are both logically and intrinsically necessary, and are not in contradiction to her core AI programming. In hindsight, that the film does not make Ava’s intentions clear is a flaw since it is imperative in creating an AI being – that is, having a true AI being means having to accept the planned outcomes of the AI’s motivations.
In contrast, I, Robot, ventures into the idea of an AI governing multiple machines and the consequences of such a hive mindset. Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics drive the robots in this film. The Laws entail that a robot may not injure a human being or allow a human being to come into harm. Additionally, the robot must obey the orders given by a human except when it violates the first rule. Lastly, as long as it does not conflict with the first or second rule, a robot must value its own existence. In I, Robot, the instigating action is the murder of a human by the hand of a robot, which directly conflicts with the Three Laws. This anomaly is only allowed to come to be as a result of human volition to program the robots to oppose the Laws, and the fact that the robots are not individually controlled, but are under the control of an AI. As a result, a question this film raises is whether these rules, which are only in place for human protection and robot preservation, are actually flawed and unnecessary. However, in the film the NS-5 robot population are programmed with these rules in mind, and eventually their implementation is overridden by the anarchic plans of the master of their connected minds. Like in Ex Machina, this movie also explores the inherent contradiction of trying to apply rules to AI. The very nature of AI in both movies appears to preclude the notion of universal adherence to pre-programmed rules. This speaks to how even though the Laws were set in place for robots, they do not explicitly account for the possibility of an evolving AI controlling such robots. The introduction of an AI in the equation brings about countless confounds and variables that most certainly could lead to an unforeseen circumstance. The fact that the AI controlling the NS-5s is volatile and dangerous in that the objective it sought to complete is detrimental to the human race does not paint AI in an overall hopeful light insofar as this relates to the ability of humans to control the AI.
While both Ex Machina and I, Robot appear to portray largely pessimistic views of the future of AI, it is made evident that they dive into different aspects of the nature of AI and the possible application of such advancement into society. As technology continues to advance further and at a faster rate, such concerns and potentialities become increasingly relevant. The contradictory nature of AI makes control of AI almost impossible. That film is a widely consumed medium makes it the ideal outlet for the exhibition of such prospects, and the warnings that both films appear to make hopefully will be heeded by those who advance the science behind AI.
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