Should artificial intelligence be part of our future?

There are 2 current films that have touched upon what it means to be human and how humans nowadays, because of incredible technological advances, want to create a virtual/robotic human so as to reinvent humans. These 2 films that have this similar theme are Ex Machina directed by Alex Garland and Creative Control directed by Benjamin Dickinson. While Ex Machina, to me, is a far better and more intriguing film than Creative Control, it is hard to ignore the film’s message – humans are like avatars; both enter in and out of real and imaginary worlds.

Ex Machina is essentially about a programmer named Caleb Smith who wins a contest that enables him to spend a week at the private estate of Nathan Bateman, his firm's brilliant CEO. When he arrives, Caleb learns that he has been chosen to be the human component in a Turing test to determine the capabilities and consciousness of Ava, a beautiful robot. However, it soon becomes evident that Ava is far more self-aware and deceptive than either man imagined. Through this brilliant plot, the film raises questions about the similarity and differences of human and robotic consciousness, morality and technology. For me, it was so interesting to see how Nathan and Ava developed throughout the film. While Caleb seemed to be more of a static character (an almost naiive yet good morals), Nathan and Ava were more dynamic characters. One way we can see this is how much we learn throughout the film about Caleb through the sessions with Ava. He reveals where he lives, what he does, if he is in a relationship and much more. Caleb is an open book from the start while we never know who Nathan is. He’s only interested to use Caleb for his own benefits and self-knowledge. Ava is also an ambiguous character because she is always questioning Caleb. While she has feelings for Caleb, we never know if they are real or programmed. It’s painful at the end to realize that her emotions were programmed, and she was also using Caleb to gain her independence. This film reminded me a lot about Tarkovsky’s 1972 sci-fi classic Solaris.  When Hari, the dead wife of Kelvin, appears on Solaris through the power of the Solaris Ocean, Kelvin questions whether his ghost-like wife is real or unreal. While Solaris affirms that humanity isn’t determined by biological makeup but by the capacity for emphathy, forgiveness, kindness and developing relationships with other humans, Ex Machina believes that robots have a place in our future if we treat them equally.

Creative Control is essentially about David, an overworked, tech-addled advertising executive developing a high-profile marketing campaign, featuring musician/comedian Reggie Watts, for a new generation of Augmented Reality glasses. Feeling stuck in his relationship with yoga teacher Juliette, he envies the charmed life of his best friend, fashion photographer Wim, and his entrancing girlfriend Sophie - so he uses the glasses to develop a life-like avatar of her. While Garland’s film is more of an inner film about hidden meanings and conceptions, Dickinson’s film is merely about the interpretations of beauty and questioning whether technology can help us understand what beauty is. One of the ways the director tries to illustrate beauty is by referencing other films (like Blow-Up, A Clockwork Orange and much more). While watching the film, I felt isolated looking at looming buildings of a corporatized city, New York. The people who live in this city seem disunited too; the people who work in these skyscrapers rarely seem to have a feel for life at ground level. David is lost within his own life too. He doesn’t know which woman to sleep with or marry? The avatar that David creates seem an escape from real life and into fantasies. He doesn’t need to worry about his decisions when dealing with technology because it doesn’t judge him. While Ex Machina seems hopeful of a world with robots and AI, Creative Control is ambivalent and warns that it might not be the answer.