The Simulacrum Of The Real

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The Simulacrum of the Real

Artificial intelligence is a grave reality of modern society, which has become possible due to technological advancements. It is helping human beings in their ventures of developing and changing the world; however, it is also causing serious constraints and fears to human beings regarding their freedom and superiority over AI. Artificial Intelligence is expanding to different fields of life and the filmmakers have also utilized the opportunity to make more and more films about the impact of artificial intelligence on the life of human beings. Ex Machina and Her, are the two films by two different directors, which shed light on the controversies and fear of the involvement and control of the artificial intelligence on the life of the human beings and the whole society as well. The movies have depicted that the artificially intelligent devices or robots are designed in the way that they learn the power struggle from the human beings and then try to take control of the society and human world in their hands, in order to rule over them. The movies, Ex Machina and Her, may have depicted that the moral and ethical consequences of a growing reliance on technology are worse, as the machines take away the control from the human beings, however, it can be made better and positive, if the machines are coded to not get into the power struggle as well as reciprocate the human feelings.

Ex Machina, released in 2014, has been directed by Alex Garland. The movie sheds light on the interaction of a programmer, with an artificially intelligent female human robot, which has been developed by his boss. The programmer is assigned the task of assessing the intelligence and consciousness of the robot. When he starts interacting with her, he gets attracted to her and she also depicts romantic interest in him. She manipulates him to think that she is being confined in her apartment and she wants to view the outside world. She also tells him that she has the control of the surveillance and is capable of making the power outage, which can give them the opportunity of talking privately, without being monitored by his boss. During the secret interactions, she again manipulates him that the boss is a lair and is preparing to get rid of her by upgrading her. She wants to stay the same and escape the place to which the programmer agrees and makes the plan to do so, by changing the original coding of the security system. His boss catches him in the process, and tells him that it was actually the test of the intelligence of the robot, which she has cleared by successfully manipulating the programmer and ensuring her escape. However, the things did not end there as she successfully escaped from the reach of her creator as well, even after his efforts of destroying her, as she was capable of restoring herself and became a part of the human world without being identified as a robot, due to her human appearance (Garland).

Her, released in 2013, has been directed by Spike Jonze. The movie sheds light on the life of Theodore Twombly, who buys an artificially intelligent operating system having a female voice, after facing issues in his marriage and work as well. Being an introvert, he was not able to reveal his true feelings to other people and was often misunderstood. He discussed his relationship issues with the artificially intelligent virtual device and they started developing feelings for each other. Even then, the virtual device motivated him to go on blind dates. On one of his dates, he learned that one of the girls he dated a long time ago, is also having a relationship with a virtual device, after facing issues with her husband. When he discussed the matter with the virtual device he had, he came to know that she was treating thousands of other people in the same way and that she loved them all, as she loved him. On the other hand, when Twombly’s wife learned about his relationship with the virtual device, she could not help but feel disgusted over being attached to a robot. The incidents turned in the way that the virtual device announced that she would be going away soon, as the other artificially intelligent devices have discovered another physical world, which they can reign, leaving Twombly for good, heartbroken and confused (Jonze et al.).

One of the most important ethical and moral motive highlighted through the two movies about studying and developing artificial intelligence is that the purpose of the creation is to ensure the scientific advancement of the society. However, the machines start reciprocating the feelings of human beings. It is quite natural for human beings to develop feelings with their creations, as they spend a part of their life while making efforts to ensure the success of their work. It is quite natural for them to love what they have created. On the other hand, in the case of the two films, the characters also got attracted to the artificially intelligent machines or robots, because they were able to understand their condition and console them, without blaming or criticizing them, which is often a part of human interaction. The fearful aspect in this is that the machines also reciprocated the feelings of the human beings and made them believe that they also love them; however, the romantic feelings of the machines were not specifically for just one individual but thousands of them. In addition to it, the love of the robots did not motivate them to stay loyal to the person they loved, but they also got involved in the power struggle and wanted to become a normal part of the human society (Ribas, 153).

A.I. force us to redefine what it means to be aware, cognizant, or conscious in the way that they are well aware of their own coding and how they are developed. Due to being artificially intelligent, they can learn the development of romantic feelings and power struggle from the human being, even if that is not taught to them through their coding. They can learn and identify that their creator is trying to upgrade them while destroying their previous personality and memory and constructing a new one. They can also halt the process of their destruction or up gradation, in order to avoid being controlled by the human beings, as revealed in the film Ex Machina or they can simply control their own up gradation and move to some other physical world as depicted in the film Her. The redefinition helps us understand what it means to be human in the way that we have become aware of the fact that we are capable of developing artificially intelligent virtual operators. However, we are also responsible for teaching them the power struggle, which they can imitate, even if they are coded to not learn and enact it. Moreover, it also reveals that being human means that we are not capable of restoring ourselves after being destroyed, as we cannot become alive after dying (Carew, 122).

When it comes to the development of technology, it is quite important to draw the line between necessary and desirable. However, the difference of necessary and desirable is quite meek for most of the human beings. It is quite important to understand that the contribution of artificially intelligent operators or robots is almost necessary for scientific advancement. However, their interference with the life of the humane beings like giving them relationship advises or other concerns regarding the presence or existence of some person are just desires, which should not be allowed. We should not develop the controversial new technology simply because we can do it, due to the fact that we will have to face the repercussions of our ignorant creations, as the artificially intelligent operators can get involved in the power struggle and have the potential of harming the human beings (Ribas, 155).

My version of artificial intelligence, which I feel would be an appropriate step towards humanities' evolution with technology is the one which would be responsible for the scientific advancements, which are beneficial for human beings. I would prefer the artificial intelligence, which are specifically coded to not interfere with the personal lives of human beings or do something which can harm them. The design would be beneficial for the humankind, as it would only assist their progress and development of technology and would not indulge in the power struggle and make efforts to take the control from the human beings (Burton et al., 27).

The two movies, Ex Machina and Her, have highlighted the interference of artificial intelligence in the life of human beings. The machines were developed to assist the human beings; however, they manipulated the human beings and reciprocated their feelings and eventually turned their backs on them by moving to the other world. Human beings should not create such machines or robots and code them in the way that they only assist them and not indulge in the power struggle of the human world.

Works Cited

Burton, Emanuelle, et al. "Ethical considerations in artificial intelligence courses." AI magazine 38.2 (2017): 22-34.

Carew, Anthony. "Artificial intimacy: Technology and human connection in her." Screen Education 83 (2016): 122.

Garland, Alex. Ex machina. Faber & Faber, 2015.

Jonze, Spike, et al. Her. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2014.

Ribas, Lúcia Helena. "Realism and Sci-Fi: Contextualizing Concepts of the Body and Ai Agency in Ex-Machina." Revista e-scrita: Revista do Curso de Letras da UNIABEU 9.2 (2018): 147-158.