Saw Ex Machina
a few days ago. Was the only viewer in front of a big screen, so at times it
felt like I was interviewing Eva (though the flirting part felt less real). It’s
a philosophically ambitious movie, meant to provoke some uneasy thoughts. The
original Turing test was apparently premised on the idea that a true AI machine
should be able to communicate like a real human being. But as humans (or at
least a significant subset of humanity) are becoming emotionally number and thus
more machine-like, passing the test must seem an increasingly realistic machine
task. Until, indeed, we are “all watched
over by machines of loving grace.” And if it is seductive cyborgs vs. psychopathic
geeks, it’s really hard not to root for the former. It’s also curious that in
the movie the benchmark for AI is defined as the ability to manipulate
emotionally another human being. But by this point this should come as little
surprise. Even a sitcom like Modern
Family that invokes a lost, extended-family-focused mode of living is built
around such mutual manipulation. It’s assumed to be, as they say, in the water
supply.
