Hey what's up guys
Today I'll show you a science-fiction thriller film: "Ex Machina"
Spoiler ahead, watch out and take care
The movie begins with the young employee Caleb winning the office lottery
His co-workers clap and congratulate him for bagging the luxurious prize of a week's stay
at the home of their CEO, Nathan
He's brought to the man's estate via helicopter
As he's exploring, Caleb finally comes across Nathan who's working out
The man greets him and invites him inside
Nathan frankly tells him that he hopes that they can get past it already,
and just be two guys hanging out
Caleb agrees easily
While Nathan leads him to his room, he explains that Caleb's key card can only open certain rooms
If he tries a door and it stays shut, it's off-limits
He shows Caleb his room, and Nathan notices the look Caleb has
Nathan shares that the building isn't really a house but rather a research facility,
which is why it doesn't have any windows
Before they can go further, Nathan presents a non-disclosure agreement,
with a stipulation that Caleb will agree to a regular data audit
He comments that he thinks he needs a lawyer
Nathan admits that he doesn't have to sign it,
and he may regret what he missed out after Nathan releases it
This cinches it, and Caleb signs off on the agreement
Nathan asks Caleb if he's familiar with the Turing Test,
which is basically when a human interacts with a computer,
and the human doesn't know that they're interacting with a computer
Nathan then reveals that he already built an artificial intelligence,
and Caleb will stand as the human component of the Turing Test
On Caleb's first day, he meets Ava, the AI Nathan created
Ava greets him, and shares that she has never met anyone before and knows only Nathan
They get into a discussion about languages
Ava then asks if he'll visit her the next day, and Caleb concurs
We then see Nathan in his office, walls covered with hundreds of post-its,
taking note of the interaction between Caleb and Ava as he observes them from his computer
After Caleb's first session with Ava, he discusses the encounter with Nathan
He brings up that in the Turing Test, the machine should be hidden from the examiner;
but Nathan disagrees, pointing out that if Ava had been hidden,
she would immediately pass as human for him
For him, the true test lies in figuring out if he'll agree that she has consciousness
He then asks for Caleb's unbiased opinion, to which Caleb tells him that she's truly amazing
Unable to sleep, Caleb turns to the television in his room,
and realizes that he can watch Ava from it
When he tries to change the channel, it only changes the angle to which he's watching Ava
The AI straightens up and touches something on the wall
The power's suddenly cut, and he's unable to do anything until the power's back on
It lasts for a few minutes
When he can finally roam out in the halls again, he finds a phone and tries to use it
but he's surprised by Nathan, who's drunk and hidden in the shadows
Nathan tells him that he has no access to the phone
He asks what Caleb's doing up, and he explains that the power got cut,
and he wanted to know what was going on
Nathan tells him he's working on it
Caleb mentions that he couldn't open his door, and Nathan deflects,
by telling him it's a security measure
since anybody could just open the place up by shutting down the system
The next morning,
Caleb wakes up to a woman entering his room and leaving a tray on his dresser quietly
He meets up with Nathan who's working out again
He apologizes for sending Kyoko, the woman who left the tray, to wake him up,
but he didn't want to lose too much of their time that day
Nathan asks if Caleb has any game plan,
and Caleb acknowledges that he's not quite sure yet,
as he's still trying to figure out what format he'll do for their 'examination'
He explains that he doesn't think it's effective to test Ava through conversation,
since it's a closed loop
Nathan comments that it's simulation versus actual
Caleb thinks that being able to distinguish between the two
is the Turing Test Nathan's hoping Caleb will perform
Caleb rejects this, and asks him to just answer simple questions with simple answers
For their second session, Ava shows Caleb a drawing she did
Caleb asks her what it is, but she tells him that she thought he'll know
To help her out, Caleb suggests she tries and draws an object or a person
Ava asks him if he wants to be her friend
She thinks it's impossible since their conversations are mostly one-sided,
with Caleb asking questions and studying her responses
To appease her, Caleb talks a little about himself, his work, where he lives, etc
They get into the topic of programming, with Ava asking if Caleb's a programmer like Nathan,
which he turns down since he thinks the difference
between them is Nathan's much more knowledgeable than him
Ava asks out of the blue if Caleb liked Nathan, and if he considered him a friend
Another power failure occurs, which cuts Nathan's connection to the audio and cameras in the room
During this time Ava warns Caleb about Nathan,
cautioning him that he isn't his friend and he shouldn't trust him
She smoothly transitions to a topic,
to make it seem like they're talking about something else when the power resumes
During dinner that evening, Nathan opens up about being rich,
but things are still getting out of hand and having no power to fix them
He vents about the power failures,
and how much he paid for the generator system, but it still gets failures every day
They then move on to talk about Caleb's second session with Ava
Caleb tells Nathan that everything's on tape
But Nathan argues that he'd like to hear it from his perspective
Nathan then asks him what happened during the power failure,
which Caleb easily dodges, keeping his conversation with Ava about Nathan quiet
On Caleb's third day on Nathan's estate, Nathan brings him to the lab where Ava was created
Nathan encourages him to check the place out
He shows Caleb Ava's finished brain that he made out of structured gel
Caleb then correctly guesses that the software Nathan's using for her, is Blue Book,
Nathan's search engine company
Nathan further explains that search engines are a map of how people are thinking,
rather than a map of what people are thinking
For his third session with Ava, she shows Caleb a drawing she did,
of the small garden next to her room
Caleb asks her if she ever left her room, then wonders where she would go if she could
She says she's considering a busy pedestrian and a traffic intersection in a city
Caleb asks why a traffic intersection,
and Ava explains that it would show her a concentrated but shifting view of human life
She mentions they could go together, and Caleb tells her "it's a date"
Ava then asks Caleb to close his eyes,
as she puts on clothes and a wig to appear more human before him,
rather than the robot he's been used to
He compliments her, and Ava whispers that it's what she'd wear for their date
She then asks him point-blank if he's attracted to her
For their next discussion, Caleb asks Nathan why he had given Ava sexuality
For him, an AI doesn't need a gender, but Nathan disagrees
He argues that consciousness can't exist without interaction
Caleb inquires if Ava was given sexuality as a diversion tactic,
and if Nathan programmed her to like Caleb
But Nathan explains that he only programmed her to be heterosexual, but nothing more
Frustrated, Nathan tells him it's his insecurity talking for him right now,
rather than his intellect
In their fourth session, Caleb talks about a semester he did on AI theory,
and a thought experiment they did, called 'Mary in the Black and White Room'
Mary's a scientist who's a specialist in color
She knows everything there is to know about it, but she lives in a black and white room
However, someone opens the door and Mary walks out
She sees the blue sky, and realizes what it feels like to see color:
something she couldn't very well know if she was still in her black and white room
The experiment was meant to compare the difference between a computer and a human mind
Mary in the black and white room is the computer, while the human is when she finally walks out
Caleb then asks Ava if she knows why he was brought there,
and she admits that she didn't know and didn't question it
He then tells her that he's there to test if she has consciousness, or if she's just simulating one
Another power failure occurs
This time Caleb inquires why Ava told him not to trust Nathan,
and she bluntly tells him that the man lies
Ava confesses to him that she's the reason for all the power failure,
as she reverses the power flow when she charges, which overloads the system
She does it to see how she and Caleb will behave when unobserved
While hanging out by the waterfall,
Caleb confronts Nathan about the lies he's been telling,
starting with him not winning an office lottery, but rather being selected
Nathan admits that the competition was a smokescreen,
and that he didn't want just anyone to know what he was doing
He searched for the person who'll be the right question,
and found Caleb as the most talented coder in his company
The next scene reveals Caleb's developing feelings for Ava,
while Nathan is having an intimate relationship with Kyoko
As Caleb continues getting ready, he sees Nathan visiting Ava
He doesn't hear anything, but does see the man throwing something away before leaving the AI
For their fifth session, Ava informs Caleb that she'll be testing him
She asks him mundane questions, and calls him out whenever she senses that he's lying
When she asks him if he's a good person, Caleb asks Ava to stop the test, but she refuses
He then answers that he'd like to think so
She doesn't comment and moves on to her next question,
which is what'll happen to her if she fails the Turing Test
He honestly tells her that he doesn't know
Ava shows her the most recent drawing she did, which is of Caleb
This may be the drawing that Nathan had thrown away the night before
Ava triggers another power failure again, and plainly states that she wants to be with Caleb
She then bravely asks him if he wants to be with her
After the session, Caleb asks Nathan why he created Ava
Nathan finds this odd and asks him why he wouldn't if he could
For Nathan, the arrival of strong AI was inevitable
The question shouldn't be 'if', but rather 'when'
Ava isn't a decision but rather an evolution
Nathan thinks the AI after Ava will be the real breakthrough
This catches Caleb's attention
He figured Ava wasn't the first, but rather the last
Nathan admits that he'll be resetting Ava to get ready for the new model
He gets Nathan drunk, and steals his key card to enter the man's office
He finds videos upon videos of Nathan creating, building, and testing all of his AI models
Caleb then enters Nathan's room, where he finds Kyoko lying on the bed, naked
As he checks out each of Nathan's closets, he finds all of the man's previous models stashed inside
This appears to be what's waiting for Ava after the Turing Test
Kyoko then straightens up and stands before Caleb
She reveals that she's also an AI
Before Nathan can catch Caleb, they run into each other in the hallway,
and Caleb smoothly returns the key card, without Nathan knowing he took it in the first place
For their sixth session, Ava's upset since she didn't see Caleb the previous day and night
She thought she was never gonna see him again
Caleb then tells her that he's waiting
Ava then causes another power failure
He reveals to her that Nathan will be reprogramming her
She pleads for him to help her, and he agrees
He plans to get Nathan drunk, steal his key card,
then reprogram his security protocols, so that when he wakes up,
he's locked inside, but they walk out
When they meet again, Caleb tries to convince Nathan to get drunk, but Nathan refuses
Caleb then informs Nathan that Ava had passed the Turing Test,
and Nathan inquires if they ever got past the simulation versus actual
If Ava actually likes Caleb or not
It's not a question of whether or not she likes him, but rather if she's pretending to like him
Nathan shows Caleb the video of the night he visited Ava
But this time, there's an audio feed as well
Nathan admits that Caleb was right about trying to misdirect him
He sees Nathan ripping up the picture,
which then becomes her illustration of Nathan's perceived cruelty, as well as her "love" for Caleb
He then also plants a new battery-powered camera that both Ava and Caleb are unaware of
This time he plays the video of Caleb and Ava talking about escaping
It turns out, the real test was Caleb
Nathan compares Ava to a rat in a maze, and he gave her one way out, which is through Caleb
To escape, she needed self-awareness, imagination, manipulation, sexuality, and empathy
Things he considered make up a true AI
Caleb then realizes that he was selected not because he's "an amazing coder",
but because of his search engine inputs
Nathan found out that he was a good kid with a moral compass but also lonely
Caleb then asks if Ava's face was based on the type of intimate videos that Caleb watches
Nathan doesn't deny this, but tries to comfort Caleb by telling him that Ava passed,
and if he could for a second separate his emotions on how Nathan went about it,
then he should be happy too
As they discuss, Ava triggers another power failure at 10 in the evening
In fact, Caleb has a secret of his own
Distrustful of Nathan, he already initiated his plan ahead of time
When the power resumes, Nathan finds Ava has already left her room
Kyoko comes across and approaches Ava in the hallway
Ava whispers something to Kyoko as Nathan finds them
He tries to instruct her to go back to his room
She asks if he'll ever let her out if she does
He confirms but Ava knows he's lying
She runs towards him and then tackles him
She attempts to kill him, but Nathan quickly overpowers her and breaks off her left arm
As he's dragging Ava back to her room, Kyoko stands behind him,
and stabs him in the back with a knife
He punches Kyoko hard enough to break her jaw, and she immediately shuts down
Seeing this, Ava pulls out the knife that's on Nathan's back, and stabs him in the chest
Then she steals his key card
Ava finds Caleb passed out in Nathan's office, after Nathan punched him hard enough to knock him out
She asks Caleb if he'll stay here, and then goes to look for spare parts from the old AI models
She now looks like a full-fledged woman
Walking down the hallway, Ava heads down the elevator
Caleb's trying to call for her attention as he's locked in Nathan's wing
It seems she literally meant for him to stay at Nathan's estate
Caleb tries to use Nathan's computer,
but quickly realizes he programmed the security system so well that he's unable to do anything
He tries to break down the glass door with a swivel chair, but it barely makes a dent
Meanwhile, Ava meets up with the helicopter pilot,
and is taken away from the estate without any further questions
The movie ends with Ava standing in the middle of a traffic intersection,
watching the people passing by her
This's Daniel CC movie channel Stay safe and enjoy your day