One contemporary example of AIs that I found particularly
interesting was from the 2013 movie Her. This
film is about a depressed, introverted man named Theodore who is in the process
of getting divorced from his wife and is very unhappy about it. Because of this,
he decides to purchase an artificially intelligent operating system (OS) that
is able to speak, learn, and evolve. The OS, which has the voice of a woman,
names herself Samantha and the rest of the movie follows the relationship
between her and Theodore. The movie is set in a time very much like our present
day, except that technology, especially AI, has become much more advanced. The
OS’s act as personal assistants for their owners.
I think the film does
a good job at showing us what we might do with highly advanced AI. We currently
use AI in a lot of our technology such as the iPhone assistant Siri. The OS
Samantha is similar to Siri in some ways, such as how they both act as personal
assistants and interact only through their voices. What makes Samantha different
from Seri, though, is that she has emotions, thinks about things, and has free
will. She and Theodore have deep, human conversations about love and life and
they bond emotionally very quickly. The similarities between the technology in Her and our own current technology make it
easier for the audience to put themselves in Theodore’s shoes and question what
they’d do if these highly advanced OS’s existed.
Theodore and Samantha eventually fall in love and start
dating, which may sound strange, but the movie presents it in a way that makes
sense. Theodore’s introversion as well as his recent divorce make it hard for
him to go out in search of women to date and the fact that he spends a lot of
time talking to Samantha throughout the day makes pursuing a relationship with
her easy for him. She also starts out very easy to get along with because of her
cheerful attitude and curiosity about the world. I think Theodore’s
relationship with Samantha is comparable to many peoples’ relationship with
technology today, and how things like phones and computers are taking the place
of relationships for a lot of people. Like Theodore, I suspect these people
prefer technology over interpersonal relationships because technology requires
less effort and is an easy, though potentially unhealthy, source of happiness.
From this perspective, Theodore and Samantha’s romance may represent our
currently increasing dependence on technology for escapism and how it is
replacing interpersonal relationships as our main source of pleasure. According
to the movie, the introduction of highly advanced, human-like AI would greatly
increase this troubling dependence.
However, another perspective can be taken on Theodore and
Samantha’s relationship. It can be viewed as an actual relationship rather than
an unhealthy escape from reality. Samantha may be an AI but her human qualities
make that hard to remember sometimes. She has many qualities that make her
different from people, the most obvious being that she has no physical body.
She is also able to perform tasks only computers can, such as reading hundreds
of files in a matter of seconds. Ignore those qualities, though, and you’re
left with an entity that has a personality, has thoughts and desires, learns,
grows, and feels emotions. These traits are all very human and make it hard to simply
label Samantha as an operating system with artificial intelligence. It’s doesn’t
work, though, to just label her a human either. Does she have a soul like a
human? It remains unclear. If she does, that would mean that souls can be
manufactured by humans. The lines are blurred between qualities that can be made
by man and qualities that only humans can naturally possess.
I liked your point about how Theodore is trying to escape from reality. The scene when Catherine and Theodore are at a restaurant about to sign the divorce papers and Catherine bluntly tells him to his face,
ReplyDelete"You wanted to have a wife without the challenges of actually dealing" really highlighted this
with anything real. I’m glad you found someone. It’s perfect." really highlighted this point. Theodore is at his best when he is able to escape his own reality. He is write heartfelt letters for other people, he is able to illicit cyber sex, among other things. But when faced with something real, in front of face like divorce papers he that he still hasn't signed yet shows his difficulty in dealing complications and imperfections like Catherine said.
I think humans are able to manufacture souls. In a sense we already do when we create children. And then when you break down how do we develop, gain a sense of our soul, it is quite similar to how Samantha gains her personality, thoughts, and ideas. She learns, she experiences events, she is able to reflect on events, and they shape who she is.