Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Justin Krook, Icon Film Distribution.
Artificial intelligence is a complicated subject. According to the director of this documentary, if you believe what you read, it’s easy to misinterpret the competences of the technology.
What makes humanity special? In a world where machines are fast becoming smarter than people, what does our increasing reliance upon, and subservience to technology, mean for our future?
Krook (I’ll Sleep While I’m Dead) contemplates these questions in this assertive, extensive and astonishing documentary. As he puts it, if your only information on AI is what you read in the news, it “can be a bit skewed. When we started doing research on the project, even amongst the experts in the field, they had very varying opinions”.
“When it comes to general intelligence or AI that is as smart as a human being, you have some people saying we may never get there and others saying this will happen in the next decade or two. So, to say the least, it was a challenging prospect to cut through the noise and give people a nuanced and pragmatic tool set to understand these technologies and understand where they’re at right now.”
In an insightful gaze, everything from transport to military to healthcare – among an ever-growing list of fields – artificial intelligence is no longer merely the realm of science fiction. This documentary (now available on digital) is an eye-opening examination of the immense impact of AI on everything from identity and creativity to longevity and sexuality.
It includes expert insights from Australian data scientist and digital ‘rock star’ Toby Walsh, pioneering fighter pilot turned autonomous vehicle systems professor Mary (Missy) Cummings and roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, who famously made a lifelike android that resembles him to an uncanny extent.
Occasionally unnerving, sometimes humorous and consistently fascinating.
