Most depictions of artificial intelligence portray it as a bad thing. Part of this is because most key plot points in films are bad things, it is the conflict which drives the story, and so we have had AIs that take over the world, that want to destroy humanity, or rule it. Or perhaps it is AI that is blinded by its own programming into doing heartless evil things? In the last few years, AI has exploded in the public consciousness and what tasks it is being asked to do becomes more varied with every passing day. Will AI rule over us? Will AI become our friend and companion? Will AI take over the creation of art?

Inventing AI

If we take Ex Machina as a jumping off point for a more up to date discussion of how AI is portrayed in movies more recently, what do we have? Ex Machina is a 2014 film directed by Alex Garland, in which a billionaire genius brings an employee to view his robot AI creation. The film deals with all manner of questions about AI, identity, life and more. The AI robot, Ava, is a creative, gentle, and nice person, and we sympathise with her, as she appears to be little more than a captive. The employee certainly forms an attachment to her and we see her and the employee being manipulated. Ava escaping at the end of the film is seen as a heroic moment, and we see the billionaire and even the employee as being people who mistreated her.

Your Friend and Companion

A common theme in recent AI films has been to move the issue away from world-conquering computers but to focus AI as something in the home, a threat to you and those around you. M3GAN is a 2022 horror-sci-fi movie in which Gemma becomes the guardian of her niece, Cady, after her parents are killed in a car accident. Gemma gets a M3gan doll, a child-sized robot with AI, designed to be a great playmate and companion for a child. At first, it is a great success, but when the adults around Cady become concerned about the girl’s attachment to the doll, things begin to change, and M3gan attacks and kills people who would get between her and Cady. In the sequel M3gan 2.0 it seems like a military contractor has decided to use the M3gan technology to make a weapon, obviously making it tougher, stronger, etc., because if there is one thing to learn from movies is that people refuse to learn.

In 2025’s Companion, an AI robot, Iris, is a companion robot – who would form “real” relationships with humans – in this case Josh. In this movie Iris is unaware that she is a robot and that she can be controlled by Josh via a remote control, he can alter her intelligence, send her to “sleep” and more. After some rather dramatic developments, Josh tells Iris about her true nature, and, like Ex Machina, we sympathize with her. Recent German TV show Cassandra has a family moving into an old “smart home” that was thought to be the future, but has been left empty for decades. The house robot, Cassandra, assists the family and helps run the house, but after so long alone is determined never to be abandoned and turned off again.

The Enemy

The Creator has a more typical depiction of AI, at least at first, in that it presents a struggle between AI and humans. But it is an exceptionally complicated world of different relationships – humans who hate AI and want it wiped out, humans who have formed relationships with AI, humans who see AI as their equals and work with them. US soldier Joshua is sent to destroy the AI’s newest weapon, Alpha-O, but upon learning this is a simulant child, he stops and rescues the child.

The Many AI of Black Mirror

The television show Black Mirror has numerous episodes about AI. Of course it does, it’s Black Mirror. There is the horrifically unsettling Be Right Back where AI is used to create a facsimile of a deceased partner, to Hang The DJ where a dating app uses AI to run scenarios to find people the perfect partner (one of the few “nice” episodes). Most recently is the episode Joan Is Awful using AI software to create a television programme using a real person’s life as inspiration, not needing writers or actors for the hit TV show.

One thing that is interesting in many of these recent depictions is that we are generally very sympathetic to these AI characters. Even in M3gan and Cassandra, where they are the villain, they are driven by desires for love and connection. M3gan sees herself as Cady’s parent, Cassandra does not want to be alone, very understandable instincts. With Ava and Iris, we have two characters who we see as being abused and/or held captive and we want them to escape. In The Creator it is the humans who are utilising massive weapons to utterly wipe out their opponents, as opposed to the depiction of AI in The Terminator franchise who seeks to wipe out humanity.

For many of these films and TV shows, the AI is far closer than they used to be – Terminator’s Skynet was some distant supercomputer, whereas now they live in your home. They are not just weapons or tools, they are companions, friends and are used to make art. The concerns that we now have are not that AI will seize political power as much as that they will take our place in life, they will become the friends, the companions, the artists, and not only that, but that possibly it is humans and not AI who are the villains.

The post From Villains to Allies: How AI Portrayals in Film Are Rapidly Evolving appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Social Media

Episodes: Nosedive, Smithereens, Hated In The Nation

Smithereens focuses on someone who blames social media for ruining his life, with the fact that it is designed to make you addicted to its notifications distracting him and causing a terrible accident. Nosedive takes place in a society where an app allows people to rate every interaction and so each person has a rating, and heaven helps those with a bad rating. The problems of social media have gone far beyond it being an irresistible distraction with misinformation easily spread across the world in seconds, comments sections becoming an exceptionally vicious battlefield in the culture war and seemingly millions of trolls/bots inciting hatred and violence. Nosedive felt very much like a glimpse into the near future but things have already moved on. Social media continues to evolve at breakneck speed and will TikTok or NFTs be the next target of the show.

Technology That Gives You What You Want

The Entire History Of You, Be Right Back, White Christmas, Arkangel

A lesson to be learned from Black Mirror is you should think through what technology will do and what it will change. The Entire History Of You has seemingly replaced fallible human memory with a perfect storage system which can even be rewatched. This sounds great…until someone wants to see your memories. White Christmas envisions an AI assistant who can get everything perfectly right for you…this is because a version of your mind is extracted and is the AI. A real-life technology like CRISPR, the ability to edit your genes, already seems like a sci-fi dystopia waiting to happen.

The Nice Ones

Episodes: San Junipero, Hang The DJ, Striking Vipers

It is easy to forget that new technology and culture will not simply lead to awfulness and has done, and will continue to do, amazing things. San Junipero envisions a virtual reality existence of hopping between different time periods, meeting people and enjoying life, giving experiences to those who could be denied them for any number of reasons. Hang The DJ lets us take the perspective of the inner workings of a dating app working out its very reliable predictions. For much of San Junipero and Hang The DJ the audience is waiting for the horror to start, for the VR world to turn against those inside, or for what we see in Hang The DJ is really some awful social experiment. Going forward there is much to be enthusiastic for in terms of technology and Brooker has said he wanted more positive and optimistic stories.

The real issue is there will always be new technology and culture that will impact on society but does Black Mirror still capture the zeitgeist. The show started in 2011 and in terms of being on the cutting edge of culture that is a very long time. Charlie Brooker, and the other writers, will still make great episodes but Black Mirror wasn’t just an entertaining show, it felt bang up to date on what was going on in the world and this will become increasingly difficult. As mentioned Charlie Brooker has talked about how the pandemic has made him uncomfortable writing stories about the collapse of societies and so perhaps we will have a brighter Black Mirror.

Also Read: Top 5 Black Mirror Episodes

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With the show taking some time off, now seems like a good time to revisit the series, and take a look at 5 of the best.

5. Fifteen Million Merits (1.02)

Taking a look at the future of talent shows and advertisements, this episode features a pre-Get Out Daniel Kaluuya, riding an exercise bike. Every few pedals of the bike earns the rider merits, which they can spend on food and drink as well as items for their digital avatars. The sleeping quarters are walls of screens with adult advertisements constantly intruding, and a paid fee to skip them, rather like paying for subscription services in real life. This is one episode that has proved rather timely as streaming and subscription services have come into our lives

4. Be Right Back (2.01)

Grief is something that everyone, unfortunately, goes through at some point, and everyone deals with it differently. The final and most important aspect of grief is accepting the loss. This episode shows one way of dealing with the loss of a loved one, use their internet history to make an android with their personality. This is one of the most human and relatable episodes of the series, and one of the most thought-provoking.

3. USS. Callister (4.01)

Riffing on both Star Trek and VR technology, this is one of the most imaginative episodes of the show. A lonely programmer lives out his space captain fantasy in VR, modding in his co-workers as his crewmates. The episode focuses on this power fantasy and spills into the real world, with allusions to Harvey Weinstein. It is one of the highest concept episodes, with Brooker describing it as “The Black Mirror version of a space epic”. This episode even won several awards, for its performances, cinematography, and sound design.

2. San Junipero (3.04)

The first episode conceived for season 3, this was written “as a conscious decision to change the series“. The episode is at its core, a love story between Yorkie and Kelly. It is also unique for being a period piece (with the exception of the interactive Bandersnatch). This episode is a great example of how the show can expand from its study of the dangers of technology and actually shows hope. This episode also garnered awards and topped a lot of “best episodes” lists.

1. White Christmas (2.04)

This festive special takes three different stories and connects them, unlike other episodes which just reference other stories. As the two characters share their life stories over Christmas dinner, the stories slowly connect. This episode is a soap opera, sci-fi and romance all in one. Although the individual stories are very short compared to regular episodes, the quality remains the same, and each of them could easily be fleshed out into full-length episodes.

Also Read: The Best Sci-Fi Films of the Decade

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