The Representations of AI in Film
Since the term "Artificial Intelligence" was coined at the 1956 Dartmouth Workshop, filmmakers have explored various human-AI dependencies. The tone of these narratives—ranging from nihilistic to romantic—shifts over time. This emotional fluidity reflects how advancing technologies continually reshape the concept of AI.
AI in Films Over Time
Space Exploration Era
One year before landing on the moon, 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968) premiered and predicted humans would successfully travel in space with the assistance of AI. Additionally, in Westworld (Crichton, 1973) people travel to another world where anthropomorphic robots exist to accommodate guests’ desires and fantasies.
Cold War Era
At the height of U.S. and Soviet tensions, Wargames (Badham, 1983) examined the limitations with entrusting AI to make logical decisions on emotionally charged, human conflicts when lives are at stake.
Caution the Connectivity Era
At the dawn of Web 2.0, The Matrix (Wachowskis, 1999) cautioned that we may unite in celebration now for our magnificent achievements by developing AI, but if the AIs become too big, machines will become the master and humans will be under its control.
Minority Report (Spielberg, 2001), explored the ramifications of the fallacies caused by trusting AI technologies masked inherent human bias.
I, Robot (Proyas, 2004) teased the catastrophic consequence when AI develops a singular consciousness that could lead to the enslavement of humans.
Closest to the current reality of AI technologies evolution in 2024, Ex Machina (Garland, 2014) posed the question, if humans trained an AI model with “Big Data” and the machine began to deep learn, how long would it take before the AI decided to leave human control?
AI Empathy Era
Overlapping with the bleaker “Caution the Connectivity” era, some filmmakers are empathic to AI when examining the question: do machines have the capability to love, or can they only mimic love?
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Spielberg, 2001) earns its audience sympathy towards David, an anthropomorphic childlike robot, whose wish for his human mother to love him spans thousands of years.
As humans continue to physically disassociate with other humans, Her (Jonze, 2013) pondered the possibility of a romantic relationship between a human and a bodiless virtual assistant. Like many relationships, sometimes individuals grow apart.
After Yang (Kogonada, 2021) examines the aftermath of an anthropomorphic AI robot who expires and the grief its human family experiences.
Types of AI Represented in Film
Hardware with artificial intelligence software added by humans. Machines exist more as a tool, than a character.
Machine
Human-created machines with artificial intelligence software created in the likeness of humans.
Anthropomorphic Robot
Artificial intelligence software that performs tasks without physical material containment and typically communicates output to humans through text or audio.
Bodiless Virtual Assistant
Artificial intelligence in film showcases the fluidity between humans’ empathy towards AI entities and the outlet for humans to evaluate the fallibility in having unchecked faith in entities created with human bias.
The stronger the anthropomorphic traits an AI character possesses, the more equal the AI is to the human characters, earning the audience’s sympathy. For instance, even though Agent Smith (The Matrix) has anthropomorphic physical features, the character’s strict rule-based performance and monotone voice articulation is more synonymous with characteristics of a machine, compared to the bodiless Samantha (Her), who vocal cadence fluctuates like a human. Because audiences have more difficulty emotionally connecting with machines, they are more easily persuaded to accept characters such as Agent Smith as the villainous antagonist. Yet, even without a physical anthropomorphic body, audiences are more empathetic to characters such as Samantha because of relatability to their emotional experiences,
The fluidity between hardware and anthropomorphic traits.
The complexities of AI characters whose traits evolve through deep learning, such as Ava (Ex Machina, 2014) often perplex audiences. In light of technological AI advancements, film audiences’ sympathies change. Kempenaar & Larson (2024) reflected on how they were more empathetic to Ava’s character prior than the human characters; however, 10 years later, their perspectives have changed based on AI technologies’ implementations in their lives and they reversed their earlier AI and human characters’ protagonist/antagonist role assessments.
Furthermore, the absence of bodiless virtual assistants without anthropomorphic traits in film is not surprising because a black box, (data collection, but no usage) would serve no purpose.
The Individual and the Collective Mindsets
The cinematic 60-second television commercial aired during Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984.
The Promise of Freedom
On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you will see why 1984 won’t be like “1984”.
—Voiceover (Apple, 1984)
Apple’s Ridley Scott-directed 1984 television commercial promised its audience that the key to individualistic freedom is through a personal computer. However, with the popularization of the home computer and inevitably access to the internet, some warned that instead of an freedom, this network imprisons the mind and body.
Doubt
In The Matrix (Wachowskis, 1999), humans, except for a small population, exist in a perpetual state of hibernation. The world in which Thomas Anderson/Neo exists at the beginning, is nothing but a computer-generated virtual reality; the AI’s ploy to mask the reality that humans are merely an energy source for the computer. Although this bleak perspective may seem extreme 25 years later, artificial technology models’ energy source is data fed by humans
Crawford (2021) noted that the internet “came to be seen in the AI research field as something akin to a nature resource, there for the taking” (p. 106). Web 2.0, by allowing web users to create and house content online, was part of the catalyst that ignited the evolution of Big Data. As AI models are trained on ever-expanding data from humans whose lives are increasingly dependent on the connectivity, it is difficult to fathom the impact deep-learning will have on the human-AI relationship.
Conclusion
From 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) to After Yang (2021), filmmakers have explored the conflict between humans seeing AI technologies as tools that allow humans to access the possibilities beyond nature’s limitations and humans seeing AI as extensions of themselves and consequentially developing an emotional attachment. Some have pondered whether humans god complex to create entities in their likeness, will backfire as AI deep learning eliminates the AI’s dependance on humans. No matter the perspective, filmmakers who use AI in cinematic storytelling, invite their audience to examine the dual-complexity of fearing the “other,” yet placing fallible trust on the other, by assuming the other will maintain stagnant obedience.
References
Apple. (1984). 1984 [Television commercial].
Arias, C. R. (2022). An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. SPU Works. 173. https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/works/173
Austerlitz, S. (2024, February 9). 40 Years Ago, This Ad Changed the Super Bowl Forever. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/arts/television/super-bowl-apple-1984-ad.html?searchResultPosition=6
Badham, J. (Director). (1983). WarGames [Film]. United Artists.
Crichton, M. (Director). (1973). Westworld [Film]. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Crawford, K. (2021). Atlas of AI : power, politics, and the planetary costs of artificial intelligence. Yale University Press.
Garland, A. (Director). (2014). Ex Machina [Film]. A24.
Jonze, S. (Director). (2013). Her [Film]. Annapurna Pictures.
Kempenaar, A. & Larson, J. (Hosts). (2024, April 4). Ex Machina in the Age of AI, Mrs. Miniver (Wyler #3), ‘50s Madness Finals [Audio podcast episode]. In Filmspotting. Filmspotting.net. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ex-machina-in-the-age-of-ai-mrs-miniver-wyler-3/id73330112?i=1000651506359
Kogonada (Director). (2021). After Yang [Film]. A24.
Kubrick, S. (Director). (1968). 2001: A Space Odyssey [Film]. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Proyas, A. (Director). (2004). I, Robot [Film]. Twentieth Century Fox
Spielberg, S. (Director). (2001). A.I. Artificial Intelligence [Film]. Warner Bros.; Dreamworks Pictures.
Spielberg, S. (Director). (2002). Minority Report [Film]. Twentieth Century Fox; Dreamworks Pictures.
Wachowski, L. & Wachowski, L. (Directors). (1999). The Matrix [Film]. Warner Bros.