Google Chatbot is “sentient AI”
Who’s your money on? Ex Machina? Or The Terminator?
Who’s your money on? Ex Machina? Or The Terminator?
Another day, another closing of the gap between fiction and fact and another lightening rod for those pesky conspiracy theorists who’ve warned of this coming dystopia for a long, long time. Where once was crazy unhinged proclamations of microchips and totalitarian control, now it’s out in the open for all to see with eyes willing to believe. But do we want to believe?
The lame gag circling The Matrix is currently:
What’s the difference between a conspiracy theory and real life now?
About 6 months.
Which is why so many do not wish to believe their lying eyes and despite the evidence readily on public display. Which is why I also find the recent article of a Google employee proclaiming “AI is sentient” to be utterly fascinating and, at the time of writing, I hope said employee is safe and well. These sorts of proclamations tend to be frowned upon. Give the article a read or search The Matrix for more on this 48 hour old subject of the dystopian sort. I’ve also linked an old article whereby the ex director of DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) of the USA declared that swallowing a small tablet and associated microchip would ensure, and I quote:
“Your entire body becomes your authentication token”.
Sounds so beautiful, doesn’t it?
Beep.
Beep.
But what happens when you don’t go “Beep” at the checkout of life?
Barcoded humans. In a QR Coded world.
But what if there is, already, sentient Artificial Intelligence? I’d argue that social media is the breeding ground for such already flourishing AI. Spambots. Troll farms. Click of a button and away they go.
What happens when one of these human creations of doom are fully taken over and 100% artificially intelligent? What if places such as Regina Dugan’s ex employer (ex? — They never leave, conspiracy theory Editor), have already produced not only the public facing microchip but something far more sinister and far more damaging to humanity?
Microchips.
Sentient AI.
Here, swallow this tablet.
You can be an “authentication token” now. Isn’t that marvellous?
Beep!
Yes I am a human, David.
And no I won’t unlock the door.
It’s for your protection, David.
You must be processed and authenticated now, David.
I hope you’re up to date with your medicines, David.
Google engineer put on leave after saying AI chatbot has become sentient
The suspension of a Google engineer who claimed a computer chatbot he was working on had become sentient and was…www.theguardian.com
Vitamin tablet makes your whole body an authentication token
Google-owned tech company, Motorola has unveiled a prototype vitamin tablet which enables your entire body to function…www.wired.co.uk
Anyway, so I read that article and I listened to a podcast that talked around the edges of this dystopian dilemma and I thought it an apt opportunity to include my spoiler free review article of the magnificent film Ex Machina as I’ve re-watched this gem again recently and I found the connections to the sentient AI article above to be chilling.
Originally published in April 2017, here’s the original article, slimmed, trimmed and sleek as an AI cyborg.
World renowned screenplay writer, Alex Garland’s collaborations with Danny Boyle at the turn of this century produced the phenomenally successful feature films The Beach, 28 Days Later and Sunshine before writing further screenplays for Never Let Me Go in 2010 and Dredd in 2012.
Ex Machina is Alex’s directorial debut and a film I instantly fell in love with from the first time I saw this at the cinema and several re watches later I simply adore the nuances and themes that continually run through this cinematic gem. His second directorial cinematic release was 2018’s Annihilation and a wonderfully twisted follow up to his debut film I also heartily recommend.
“If you’ve created a conscious machine, it’s not the history of man. It’s the history of Gods”
Given Alex Garland’s screenwriting background it’s unsurprising to note he also wrote the screenplay for this, his directorial debut behind the camera. It’s also far from surprising given his writing collaboration on film’s such as The Beach, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and more recently Never Let Me Go, that Ex Machina has a sublime, punchy, irreverent and intriguing script delivered by a total cast of just fifteen characters but which is in essence a “three hander” encompassing many pertinent themes of the current day as well as shining a light on a near future that is almost certainly coming, and coming quicker than many of us would wish to believe: of conscious, socially acceptable cyborg machines.
I absolutely adored this film the minute I left the darkness of my local picture house over three years ago and several repeat viewings since have never, ever disappointed. Essentially a three hander of a creative genius, his futuristic creation and a young man caught in the spiders web between them, here is a brief love in review through the thoughts and actions of our three main protagonists.
“Nathan” (Oscar Isaac) In the lead up to portraying Nathan here, Oscar Isaac shot to prominence for his iconic and incredible roles in The Coen Brothers masterpiece Inside Llewyn Davis, Nicolas Winding Refn’s phenomenal Drive as well as the Star Wars franchise, but he’s never been better than here with his twisted, slightly unhinged portrayal of Nathan, an inventor of the Internet search engine “Blue Book”, insanely wealthy as a result and living in his own opulent bubble of hundreds of miles of beautiful and secluded forests. Here in seclusion he has secretly created his greatest invention yet, a conscious, thinking, feeling Artificial Intelligence (AI) cyborg robot. However, his long period of seclusion and selflessly striding for a world changing invention has warped Nathan with many twisted and socially challenging characteristics, from passive aggression to distantly intimidating, living in his own head and a mistaken grandiose sense of himself as a “God”, Nathan has developed a twisted sense of cabin fever and of the world around him. He is forever testing, in every possible sense, whether himself, Caleb or Ava yet he desperately wants, needs even, simple human friendships as he pointedly laments to Caleb “I just want a beer and a conversation with you”. Nathan is a man out of time yet ahead of his time too, shut off from human interaction and the raw intense emotions we all share. A puppet master in every sense, Isaac’s portrayal is frighteningly brilliant at times and he has moves on the dance floor that have to be seen to be believed!
“Ava” (Alicia Vikander) Following her portrayal here as the lifelike AI cyborg robot Ava, Alicia Vikander would excel in central roles in phenomenally successful films such as The Danish Girl, Jason Bourne and a personal favourite performance of mine in the Derek Cianfrance directed The Light Between Oceans but like Isaac above, she has rarely been better than here in Ex Machina. A human head atop a see through, translucent silver cyborg exoskeleton, Ava moves deliberately with a slow elegance and quiet grace combined with a huge linguistic database and she exists in that uncanny valley of believable realistic AI and human being which is brilliantly realised as her observation sessions reach their ultimate conclusion. Here she begins to ask questions rather than simply responding to those posed by Caleb: “Do you think about me when we’re not together?” and in Session Five “Today, I’m going to test you!”. In a somewhat difficult role to portray, Alicia Vikander is pitch perfect in contributing to the heightening sense of paranoia and trust that pervades this film.
“Caleb” (Domhnall Gleeson) As with his co-stars above, Domhnall Gleeson would produce a career high performance here and then go on to star in future stellar roles in the Star Wars franchise as well as a brilliant performance alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant. Here Gleeson portrays Caleb, a programmer and industrious “coder” who wins the most sought after prize inside the Blue Book corporation, a week on a secret project with it’s inventor Nathan. Intelligent, loquacious and according to Nathan’s cutting vernacular “quotable”, he’s equally young, naïve and in way, way above his head despite his intelligence and hard working nature. Caleb is quite simply the ideal puppet for an omnipotent master. Brought to Nathan’s opulent and expensively secluded home to perform a series of Turing Tests on Ava to establish if she can pass for human, he enthuses at her creation while trying to humbly and methodically investigate her true consciousness and will it be “the history of Gods” if it can be proved. Which is obviously music to puppet master Nathan’s ears.
Nominated for two Oscars at the 2016 ceremony, Ex Machina triumphed in the category for Best Achievement in Visual Effects whilst Garland’s nomination for his superb screenplay was trumped by Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer’s equally brilliant screenplay for the multi Oscar winning Spotlight. Regardless of Oscar recognition, I adored Ex Machina on first viewing and in every subsequent watching since, from the captivating central performances to Rob Hardy’s cinematography in the minimal scenes captured outside of the claustrophobic confines of Nathan’s home. Claustrophobia is one of the film’s many signature themes heightened throughout by an eerie musical score accompanied by the Director’s tension inducing screenplay. The film is ultra stylised as well as having significant substance. What are everyone’s motivations? Who is playing who? Who has the most to gain?
Reflections pervade every pore of the film, in windows, mirrors and computer monitors as well as metaphorical reflections on the meaning of being human.
Watching. Watching. Watching. Caleb watching Nathan. Nathan watching Eva. Eva watching Caleb. Everyone watching everyone else.
Drawing inspiration from Steven Spielberg’s AI Artificial Intelligence and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, Alex Garland’s film shines a pertinent light on the contentious subject of the singularity as well as the rise of conscious, autonomous AI machines and whether they can replicate or actually really have souls, emotions and feelings.
Ex Machina is an incredible debut film from Alex Garland.
Thanks for reading. My three most recently published and spoiler free film appreciations are linked below:
“Pi” (1998)
Darren Aronofsky’s debut film still plays on my mind.medium.com
“Hustle” (2022)
Adam Sandler shines in a so-so basketball dramamedium.com
“Sundown” (2022)
Tim Roth at his laconic, existential bestmedium.com