Posted on 02/01/2022 10:35:18 AM PST by sphinx
i will make a note of these
“One day, an A.I. will claim human rights as a sentient being. Do we grant such rights?”
Only, like thru all of human history, it can exercise (directly or indirectly) means of refusal to comply.
“Plot synopsis (without spoilers)?”
I guess I left out some obvious framing points. Jake and Kyra, a middle aged married couple, have a daughter (Mika) adopted from China. (Young Malea Emma should be in the running for the best child actor awards.) As is common in their sometime-in-the-indeterminate-future world, they purchase a “techno,” the shorthand term for “technosapien,” as an AI babysitter/teacher/companion/guardian for their daughter. Since their daughter was from China, they get a “cultural techno” with Asian features and a lot of lore about China as a way to help connect Mika with her cultural heritage. (This is important to some adopted kids and not to others; my own girls were too busy playing soccer, hanging out at the pool with their friends, and being normal American kids to think too much about being Chinese. Kids differ on this.) Anyhow, Yang ends up functioning as Mika’s big brother.
Mika is very young and she unquestionably accepts Yang as her brother. She is extremely upset when he fritzes out. Jake and Kyra regard Yang as a gloried appliance, though we see glimpses in memories of Jake taking more of a tentative interest.
Jake and Kyra set out to get Yang fixed. Things do not go as planned. The pacing is superb; Kogonada changes the mood repeatedly, and some scenes are downright funny. You will see a QuickFix counter guy who will remind you of everything you hate about big tech customer support. There’s a gray market, semi-underground repair guy — you glimpse him in the trailer — who has everything but a MAGA hat; he is a conspiracy theorist who is convinced the bots are loaded with spyware. He’s funny but he’s a good guy who refuses payment because he can’t do the fix. There’s a museum curator who understands that Yang is a unique specimen and who badly wants Yang and his memories for her museum. There is a wonderful all-American neighbor whose ... well, no spoilers, but he’s great.
It’s worth buying a ticket and going to the theater just for the opening credits. Never has the main cast been better introduced. If there were an Oscar for opening credits, it would have to be retired after this year.
There’s plenty to see here if you are ok with quiet, meditative films. Just don’t go in expecting an action film with rogue androids. As with Columbus, there are no villains. You will be rooting for everyone in this movie.
“One day, an A.I. will claim human rights as a sentient being.”
Definitely watch I’m Your Man. The premise of the film is that the government is considering granting limited civil rights to androids — e.g., the right to work, the right to have a passport and travel, the right to serve as a life partner to a human. The ethics committee has assembled a group of sober, highly intelligent professionals — all of the serious, respected people in intellectually challenging fields — to test and evaluate.
Things take off from there. What you see in the movie is one of these field tests. It does not end up where you think it will end up.
Thanks
Nope. Neither film even raises homosexuality and neither is at all political.
A24 is batting way above .300 in my book. I’ve seen a bunch of good stuff from them in the last decade.
FReegards
Strong sexual themes of any variety?
this is a really obscure movie site
They list the moral quality, as well as the production quality.
https://christiananswers.net/spotlight/home.html
“I kind of liked Ex Machina.”
That was good. I watched Prisoner X the other night. If you can handle movies with a lot of interrogation, you will like this.
Read “The Lake” Author is Natasha Preston.
Would make a good movie.
My favorite Pinnochio android - Data from ST:TNG
Check out the trailers. The robots here are not “autistic sociopaths.”
I think the “autistic sociopath” thing is overused for two reasons. First, of course, it’s a way of turning the movie into an action film, with a lot of opponents who can be killed with no moral compunction. So there’s that.
But there’s a more sophisticated purpose. Thoughtful AI movies provide a platform for discussing the mind/consciousness question and issues of purpose and meaning. Passing the Turing Test is the point of entry for intelligent discussion.
Start with the realization that, for most purposes, there is no reason to make a robot humanoid in form. The only reasons for doing so would be (1) to use the android as a member of a mixed team, in which case the bot needs to move in human-engineered spaces and use human-engineered tools; (2) for purposes of deception; or (3) to use the android as a sexual toy or the target of violence (e.g. the Westworld scenario).
How do you get a Turing Test positive in such scenarios? The Frankenstein path is the easiest; the robot/android rebels against bad treatment (after all, who knew they had feelings to begin with) or breaks free somehow of its programming and acts counter to its programmed instructions. This is Westworld.
In After Yang and I’m Your Man, the scenario is very different. The androids are created as human helpers and companions. They are programmed for the highest possible standards of conduct. They have sophisticated learning systems that allow them to continually adjust and fine tune their responses to their human contacts. And in these two movies, the androids behave spendidly.
How do you create a Turing Test when the AI character does not rebel, when it is perfectly behaved, when it responds generously and intelligently to human needs and desires? They are perfect; if anything, they are too perfect, and this perfection stamps them as machines. Compassionate, decent, kind behavior is indistinguishable from good programming.
After Yang takes a look at this through the importance of layered memories. I can’t go further without spoilers. I’m Your Man is a bit trickier; there is a scene in which the android disobeys direct commands, but he does so when the woman is extremely upset, angry, in despair, and very, very drunk. He is doing what is clearly in her best interest, even if she emphatically disagrees.
Both films nibble at the problem you pose. You might find them intriguing. Bottom line, these AIs are not sociopaths.
LOL, I might be able to watch it, but my wife is too squeamish.
Heh, was thinking about that Bond movie where the guy cuts the seat out of the rattan chair and uses a monkey fist coming up from underneath...
Okay. That makes me squrim.
Thxs for the heads-up...
It has to be Star Trek or Star Wars for me.
Just not the SJW woke versions.
Language detail: Ich bin dein Mensch means something more like "I am your human being," but the distinction is lost in English.
Right now, though, I sort of am more in the mood for outer space than for AI, androids, and robots -- only something new, not Star Wars or Star Trek.
Dan Stevens appears to be fluent in German. Watch the first 30 seconds of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioFMvGu05_k
This is the U.S. trailer. What I posted initially was the UK trailer, which edges a bit more into the philosophical musings of the film. There’s a different flavor to the U.S. and UK versions that I found interesting.
Why Dan Stevens was cast as the lead in a German film, I don’t know, but it sets up an amusing exchange in the early going. The woman has undergone extensive psychological testing and her AI test partner has been designed and programmed to be her ideal match. She immediately notices that Tom speaks with an English accent and she asks why. Funny scene.
Looking forward to seeing both these movies. Thanks for the ping.
“I’ve yet to seen an AI depicted properly.”
I agree.
If I were writing it, the AI would remain hidden and would never have a physical form at all.
They would quietly manipulate humans—with enough subtlety so no-one would recognize it.
Perhaps a plot would be they work behind the scenes to develop high tech to explore the planets and galaxy—secretly removing impediments to that effort and using carrots and sticks...
Something like that—but real AI needs a mission—a non-human mission.
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