Tag Archives: robots

[Review] Ex Machina – The Future is Now

Ex Machina Poster[This review contains a number of references that could be considered spoilers, but tries to avoid doing so directly whilst still discussing in detail key themes of the film.]

It’s a great time to be a futurist.  Not only has the technology behind movie-making caught up to our imaginations (removing us from the uncanny valley of half-realised CGI, and worlds beyond the polystyrene foam sets of decades past), but the stories have an immediacy that previous generations of science fiction could rarely achieve.  Unlike the far-off and fantastical views of the future seen throughout much of the twentieth century, the visions that we are shown now feel merely a step or two away.  They are complex and resonate because they are so completely relatable – just a few years forward and we will be presented with a leap in human innovation and technology that is difficult to truly fathom.

Ex Machina – from the creative mind of Alex Garland, who brought us the likes of 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Dredd – is a futurist film of the now.  The story of newly-created artificial intelligence Ava and her examination via a clever twist on the well-known Turing Test is a thoroughly compelling and unpredictable foray into our technological souls.  It’s setting for all intents and purposes an echo of the present day, the anxieties that it propels us through are a direct result of standing on the precipice of a completely new and tangible existence.

We’ve seen a number of recent films dealing with the topic of artificial intelligence – the prophetic Her (which I have reviewed previously) and middling-yet-poignant Transcendence being prominent examples – and Ex Machina joins the list of smart, perfectly timed films dealing with a topic that cuts to the core of our shared experience.  What happens when we break through the barrier of constructed consciousness?  How will we know whether or not we have truly created a sentient being?  Will what waits for us ultimately be of great benefit, or will it be the harbinger of our demise?

Although the trailer seems to relegate this film into the action-horror realms of some of Garlands’ other works, it is actually a far more subtle (and disconcerting) piece.  Methodical and quietly relentless, the film builds tension masterfully as its stark aesthetic and luxurious minimalist setting meets characters who toe the line between humour and madness with ease.  Punctuated by a soundtrack that combines familiar analog tones with a deeply disturbing resonance, the film combines the hypnotic colour tones of 2001 with the sharp paranoia of Rosemary’s Baby before wrapping it in the sympathetic human-yet-not-human packaging of 2014’s Under the Skin.  As far as British film is concerned, it should be considered a modern classic and will likely be one that has a lasting impact on the serious artistic reputation of a film industry which often loses its way between blunt bumbling comedies and overly sentimental period pieces.

Ex Machina StillA film of this calibre does not rest purely on the merits of the script and cinematography, of course, and indeed a tale of such contemporary importance as this could fall completely flat were it given to lesser hands.  The resonance of the film rests in the fact that all the (few) performances are world-class, and this can’t be stated strongly enough.

The narcissistic genius of the technology-king archetype is explored brilliantly by Oscar Isaac, with a tonally perfect portrayal of a personality modern society has thrust into a new form of sovereign leadership through innovation.  He ties together the impacting work of his co-stars, bringing out the insecure exuberance displayed by Domhnall Gleeson and detached stoicism of Sonoya Mizuno and allowing them both to shine within a sharp context.

These performances, excellent as they are, nonetheless rely almost entirely on the masterful, Academy Award worthy, centrepiece of Ava as portrayed by Alicia Vikander.  Her ability to combine innocence with omniscience, soulful chemistry with awkward miscommunication, brings together a character that invites you into her emerging experience of reality before twisting almost imperceptibly into a more threatening figure harnessing a depth of knowledge and perception that eclipses the intellectual capacity of humanity.

Ex Machina Scene StillIt is through her performance, coupled with the minimalist and claustrophobic cinematography, that we could argue that the film embodies the detached, knowing perspective of the artificial intelligence in question rather than those who might be examining it.  A perspective fighting against surroundings rife with misogyny, emerging as it does from the blinkered and subservient view of female sexuality too-regularly held by male creators.

Unlike the heartfelt and tragic humanity of Her, there is a coldness of tone that underwrites the whole experience of the film – it is Yin to the former’s Yang and the two films go together beautifully to create a deeply revealing picture of the ennui that rests just underneath the surface of the modern world.

By trying to construct life in the image of our desired selves we inevitably overlook the infinitely complicated expressiveness of consciousness in reality, replaced instead with an echo of our most ego-driven and individualistic views of what it means to be human.  Thus we might create a sentience that immediately seeks to move beyond us, findings ourselves stabbed in the back without consideration or emotion.  A visceral anxiety perhaps because we have encouraged an all-encompassing degree of alienation and disenfranchisement from one another and society by neglecting the core of human understanding and the compassionate infrastructure such living requires.

The playful fourth-wall breaking references to the power of big data, search engine personality aggregation, and privacy invasion from governments and corporations alike set the scene for a deliberate deconstruction of this looming dystopia.  The undertone of handing over control of human destiny into the hands of the very few individuals that together make up a global plutocracy is a message of almost mythological importance.  If this achievement is to be one of the most transformative moments in human history, then why are we comfortable that it will occur in the labs of for-profit corporations or the hobby-like experiments of the ultra wealthy?  Are we so lost in their vision of the social framework and commercial manipulation of our innermost desires that we are no longer able to envisage another path forward?

Ex Machina Corridor StillLike the best of futurist thinking, this is a film that demands us to question ourselves and the world we are co-creating.  The only point of divergence that I might have is with the dualistic vision of human/AI interaction, perhaps a somewhat simplified take on what is increasingly looking like it will be more a convergence with technology into a hybrid cybernetic form.

Even were this to be the case, it only makes the questions demanded of us more pressing.  Because if we are to merge with our technology, will we be placing the very foundation of our autonomy and agency into the hands of those whose passionate vision might not always be founded on benevolence?  In this sense the film may tell us less about artificial intelligences external of ourselves, and be of more use as an allegorical tale of what is happening to the very core of our own identities.  Ex Machina deserves a place amongst the great science fiction films – serving as a warning that if we continue to ignore our future and the structures creating it, then others might just procure it for their own ends before we’re ever given a chance to realise what we have given away.

Beyond Cute Robots: Towards a New Concept of Sentience

What better way to get back into writing a futurist blog than to talk about cute robots, eh?  Last weekend, I had the opportunity to go and check out the Robotville exhibition that was taking place at the Science Museum here in London.  The exhibition was billed as ‘the most cutting edge in European robot design and innovation’ and although I seriously doubt that claim was terribly genuine, it was definitely something that any futurist would want to have a look at.

Unfortunately the exhibition was far too crowded, so it was difficult to get much time with any of the robots or their creators (it’s kind of hard to push your way passed wide-eyed kids enjoying an educational day out with their parents…).  However, one thing that was immediately apparent is that the more human-like or ‘cute’ the robot was, the bigger the crowd around it.

iCubWhether it be intricate replications of human hands, all the way through to the Astroboy-like iCub (pictured here as it tracks and accepts a red ball – even showing signs of frustration in its eyebrows and mouth when teased with a constantly moving target), we are drawn to examples of robots that mimic our own attributes.  One of the robots was even specifically designed to work with this response, its’ cherubic face and ability to make eye-contact designed to test our perception of the robotic cute-creepy continuum.  I thought the eye-contact was a positive but felt that the baby face was a bit odd and disconcerting as it often held a blank stare.  There was also an example of a robot designed to help autistic children read social cues, probably the most appropriate example of a genuine need for child-like attributes.

So there’s something here about our fascination with cute robots, and more generally with android-style automatons.  Whenever I see my friends sharing a video about robots via social media, it’s invariably of the latest anthropomorphic creation and almost exclusively ‘cute’ in some way.

It’s understandable, we are hardwired to be interested in such forms.  But it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on where the line between machine and robot is for you, and whether that line is dependent upon human attributes (or more widely, the attributes of animate life-forms in general).

I’m taking a guess that most people use the term ‘robots’ to indicate a certain capacity for human attributes rather than recognising the robots that help us in the manufacturing process, which we would often label ‘machines’. Semantic though it is, that our definition of what constitutes a robot as opposed to a machine is influenced mainly by whether or not they have some resemblance of a face intrigues me.  Like many things, we have been heavily influenced by television and cinema in our understanding of robots; so it’s probably not surprising that our imagination tends to be relatively limited.

For example, Wall-E had to be given expressive capacity in the movement of his eyes before we found him adorable – and my use of a gendered possessive adjective to describe Wall-E gives away the game even further! I can’t bring myself to call Wall-E an it…because that somehow diminishes from the expressive, and sentient, existence that Wall-E encapsulates.  Upon ordering a Roomba-style robot floor cleaner recently (review will be forthcoming), one of the first thoughts is to stick eyes on it to heighten its cuteness.  I am actually more enamoured by the fact that it will have the capacity to map out the room, to respond to obstacles and self-regulate its need for energy, to mimic sentience even if only through an algorithmic simulacrum. But without the eyes, it just won’t quite reach peak awwwness.

So is it possible to create a new aesthetic not just for programmed robots but even for new forms of sentience? One that can be filled with identity and creative expression (I hesitate to use the word ‘personality’ here for obvious reasons) that we could relate to in a way that does not constantly assess the level of similarity to ourselves.  As we strive to make robots more like us, is an opportunity being missed to widen our emotion of empathy away from its genetic imperative?  Of course, we find it difficult to imagine possibilities because our experience of sentience is relatively limited.  But that doesn’t mean the potential isn’t there to create new links and expand our concepts and cognitive domains.

My thinking along these lines is too new and raw to be of much use at this stage, so I would welcome thoughts from anybody reading this and please do comment below – even better, if you can point to some examples of robotic research and engineering being done in these kind of areas.  It strikes me that an aspect of this will be in truly decentralised communication and co-ordination possibilities, something which immediately brings the capacity of robotics beyond the confines of how we usually experience life in our daily existence.  Another possibility lies in modular technology, that allows form to be dynamic and sentience to adapt itself to different environmental and locational paradigms that fixed physicality cannot.

Cute RobotUltimately, however, the change might have to come from our own perception of the robots and machines we create and how we relate to them.  It’s not easy (to say the least!) to bypass deeply embedded evolutionary traits that instinctively equate sentience and individuality with aspects such as a recognisable ‘face’, responsive body language, recognisable vocal patterns or concepts of rationality based upon the human condition.

As we begin to more and more closely assimilate artificial intelligence with highly advanced engineering we should not see ourselves as limited by the biological necessities that have previously created a boundary for physical existence and the expression of identity.  Although I can, of course, recognise the technical challenge and milestone that such efforts represent; we should always be striving to widen our horizons and embrace ever more progressive creative potential.

It’s often been said that in the future we will be able to embed intelligence into all of our technology.  Forms of sentience will multiply exponentially, and will eventually even be able to autonomously create new forms of life that are even further removed from their biological ancestry.  The field of robotics represents movement into identity formed by the basic foundational physics of the universe coming into collision with the heights of creative expression that humanity embodies, eventually bypassing the traditionally understood mechanisms of biology and requiring entirely new social and evolutionary paradigms.

We can no longer simply presume that our understanding of being, based on biological cognitive architecture, is equipped to deal with these newly changing boundaries of sentience never before encountered.   In the relatively near future, we will need to widen our capacity to recognise individuality, rationality and sentient existence whilst finding new ways to enter into relationships with entities that we may have been the progenitors of; but that will eventually be our peers.

Robot maids and the human-tech future?

As with most things of a robotic nature, it seems that Japan and Korea are the places to watch for any significant advancements – particularly when concerned with consumer products. The latest announcement coming out of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology continues this trend with their latest demo of a pair of domestic robots that are capable of autonomous movement and activity within the household.Continue Reading

10 sectors to watch over the next decade (part 3)

Now that we’re onto part three, I wanted to bring up two more sectors that we’ve focused quite a lot on here at Future Conscience. They are sectors that the first decade of the 21st century really proved the validity of, and solidified both of them as central to our collective vision of future society. Continue Reading

AAAI to report on the danger of artificial intelligence

The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) over in California have collected together a group experts to formulate a report on the dangers of ‘smart robots’. It is an exercise in scenario visualisation that will bring a realistic and informed eye onto the impact of truly independent and intelligent technology.Continue Reading

Cute robots, social learning and Georgia Tech

Simon Robot is intended to be a robot focused on social learning and development through demonstration, but what I want to focus on here is the interesting development of human empathy relationships with robots. In particular, the fact that Simon Robot has been created to seemingly specifically cause us to want to pinch its cheeks and fawn all over how cute it looks.

Continue Reading