you
I do think there's reasons to be anxious
about the potential of AI there are
these objects in our homes computers and
mobile phones we don't really understand
them we don't really understand how they
work and we don't know what they know
about us they seem to know quite a lot
about us and we don't know much about
them 65 take six
my name is Alex :
and my background is writing really and
I I see myself as a writer but I was
also directing this film X Bakula it's
about a young guy who wins a competition
within his company which is a big tech
company
how long until we get to this estate
we've been flying over his estate for
the past two hours
he wins a competition to spend a week
with the CEO and the guys mountain
retreat it's good to meet you Nathan
it's good to meet you too cam when he
arrives he finds out that he's actually
there to test Nathan's newest invention
which is a robot that may have
artificial intelligence that may be
self-aware either to give her a Turing
test to find out if she indeed is
conscious it comes down to if a machine
can convince you that it has
consciousness then it has consciousness
the CEO is kind of threatening and
predatory and we're not really invited
to sympathize with him but the film is
ambiguous about whether he is actually
like that or for the purposes of the
test is is pretending to be like that so
that this young guy will cast himself as
a kind of Savior why me Kayla you have
to help me I'm 44 and my life is broadly
kept pace with the development of home
computers and video games really when I
was I guess around twelve thirteen
something like that I had a home
computer you could make the computer do
very simple things you'd say hello and
it would say hello back and you'd say
how are you and I would say I'm fine how
are you and so you'd have this strange
sense where where the computer would
suddenly have this slightly electric
quality of being sentient because it's
not sentient you knew it wasn't sentient
because you coded it still the feeling
it gave you was kind of special but then
in my adult life I got quite interested
in a relationship between AI and
consciousness our consciousness if Apple
suddenly pulled back a curtain and said
look what we've done and this robot Ava
stepped out from the shadows we'd be
surprised but we wouldn't be that
surprised we kind of expect it's going
on so in that respect automatically it
feels like it's ten minutes in the
future as opposed to a hundred years in
the future
we're our dreamers to a certain extent
the idea of what were capable of is an
incredible source of excitement and
nervousness as well because I think the
past has shown us that often we lose
control over the things that we create
hello hi there is explicitly anxiety
about AI Stephen Hawkins recently made a
very clear statement stating that you
could draw a parallel with nuclear power
there's reasons to be nervous about
nuclear power too but that doesn't
necessarily mean you don't use it it's
not innately bad our conversations are
one-sided you ask circumspect questions
and study my responses if it's one thing
that at least with all the characters of
you know that I'm taking on is the fact
that I can relate to them being human
and that I can do this part so in one
way I was just left with a blank sheet
of you know I need to kind of figure out
what this Ava is so happens that
policías trained as a ballerina so she
has a kind of supernatural control over
physicality if I actually just move my
arm like it's me actually I can move my
arm but if I do everything in a very
precise way it you know it's something
that any girl can do but it's the
awareness of it has just begun a bit too
much that makes people question it what
she does is she does the uncanny valley
with her physical behavior her actions
and emotions so there's nothing
obviously robotic about the way she
moves in a way what she does is perfect
versions of what we do
whereas I slouch on this chair and and
if I was to get up I'd have to sort of
you know displace my weight in a
particular kind of way she would rise
off this chair with an elegance that I
can't do now open your eyes
are you attracted to me I hope you the
trick that happens in the film is that
people don't spend enough time thinking
about what's going on in our mind
because they're they're blinded and
distracted by some of other
characteristics did you program her to
flirt with me I programmed her to be
heterosexual just like you were
programmed to be heterosexual
nobody programmed me to be straight you
decided to be straight please of course
you are programmed by nature or nurture
or both and to be honest Caleb you're
starting to annoy me now because this is
your insecurity talking this is not your
intellect nathan is quite misanthropic I
don't think he values humanity very much
he knows that sooner or later one of
these robots is gonna escape and it's
gonna be the end of us and why shouldn't
it be so there's a little bit of a
suicidal aspect of what he's doing and I
think I think he's ok with it I wanted
him to be someone who you often thought
you felt was being unreasonable in what
he said and did and sometimes if you
listen carefully to what he's saying it
might not be a comfortable truth but it
may still be a truth and conversely the
other character caleb often sounds like
he's being reasonable but what he's
saying may not stand up to really close
inspection
okay you're on wrong about what Nathan
you shouldn't trust anything he says
there's a bunch of games being played in
a narrative sense about who you trust
why you trust them what they're really
doing everybody's lying to everybody
else all of them kill there's something
I want to show you can we talk about the
lies you've been spinning me what lies
do you want to be my friend of course
did you know that Nathan brought me here
to test you it's very rare that you get
to play a character in a film where the
action scenes are dialogue scenes you
know the firework moments are these
incredible situations where these people
are torturing each other with their
brains self-awareness manipulation
sexuality are you attracted to me now if
that isn't true what is the film is
definitely not supposed to be a
cautionary tale about a eyes the caution
is all aimed are the humans from my
point of view my anxieties are about
people not machines a eyes might be more
reasonable about some stuff than we are
we know what humans are able to do all
the bad things that we've done the
technology brief we actually can make
something that has a conscience why can
be one that is better than ours
the way she's shot the music the place
the film is definitely on the side of
Ava which is interesting
I was kind of infatuated with them and I
can see that when I watched the film the
love story for me is between me and the
robe
you