Ex Machina (4 Stars)

I picked this film almost at random from my shelf today when I realised I haven't watched it for nine years. It's a film about artificial intelligence, which is more topical today than when it was made. Today it's impossible to avoid artificial intelligence. It's been built into Google's search engine, so people are forced to use it whether they want to or not. Many people are scared of artificial intelligence and desperately search for arguments against it. Some of the arguments are valid, but if the people listen to themselves they'll realise that they aren't arguing against artificial intelligence itself, they're arguing against the misuse of artificial intelligence. I shan't go into the subject in any depth here, except to say that we have to live with artificial intelligence. It's part of our lives in the twenty-first Century.

Artificial intelligence isn't a new subject. I took classes about artificial intelligence in university 50 years ago. I attempted (unsuccessfully) to generate poetry. It would be an easy task today. But let's get to the film.

Ava is a robot that's been programmed to think for herself. The young programmer Caleb is selected to speak with her and decide whether or not she's self aware. This is incorrectly called a Turing Test. Caleb knows that she's a robot, but he's asked to decide whether she could pass as human.

What's the measure of intelligence? When does a robot become human? It's suggested that humanity is measured by the ability to deceive. What is more human than lying? Another measure of humanity is the instinct of self-preservation. This is something that a chess program doesn't have. (The comparison is made in the film). A chess program doesn't care if it's turned off. After winning a game its purpose is at an end. But if a robot has the urge to continue to exist, it has intelligence.

Most films about robots show how technology goes wrong. Robots are created for peaceful purposes, but they go crazy and start killing people. "Ex Machina" goes in a different direction. The robot has been designed by a businessman who owns the world's most popular search engine. (Does that sound familiar?) He's the one who has poor morals, not the robot herself.

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