Great afternoon, Fortune senior author Jeff Roberts here with a question: Exactly what film or TV series has done the very best job researching A.I.? I ask since, although Hollywood is notorious for flubbing scientific specifics, the tales that it tells often represent our collective dreams and anxieties as a culture.
I set about building a record and also the first movie to come into mind was that the 1968 classic, 2001: a Space Odyssey. The film, hailed for the realistic depiction of space flight, which includes a computer called HAL who belongs rogue, commandeering the boat and murdering the astronauts. An enjoyable tidbit is that HAL was motivated by IBM (notice the initials are {} letter away ). And while some people these days would select IBM as the company most likely to enslave us2001‘s {} of betrayal by our personal machines nonetheless succeeds.
This anxiety about losing control of these apparatus we construct is a frequent narrative. Other notable examples include the Terminator collection, the first Alien and particular incidents of Black Mirror.
However, the robots aren’t necessarily the bad men. There’s yet another popular A.I. trope at Hollywood trope where machines provide link and maybe even salvation in a universe where we now ’ve lost our humanity. Think about Harrison Ford discovering love using a replicant at Blade Runner or Joaquin Phoenix adjusting his heart break using an electronic helper in Her. Sometimes –especially the game series placing of Westworld–that the robots’s efforts to become sentient certainly are a rebuke to the ethical failings of actual people.
It’s noteworthy that, at the A.I. indicates that provide the promise of salvation, the machines which may rescue us are feminine. However, maybe not that stereotype of feminine compassion isn’t universal. In canvassing my technician reporter coworkers, a number mentioned Ex Machina–that watch the protagonist outsmarted with a sociopathic female robot{} a must-watch. Then there’s Wall-E, the tender penile robot that assists humankind mend a ravaged ground.
I admit I harbor ’t noticed the two movies but intend to shortly.
What do you believe? Can we make some huge omissions in our listing of high A.I. films and TV shows? If that’s the case, please email me your favorites–we’ll add your answers in the next week’s Eye on A.I. newsletter.
Jeff John Roberts
@jeffjohnroberts
[email protected]
