 |
| Photo by Greg Rakozy |
A couple of weeks ago, I watched the film Ex Machina for the third time. For those
who haven’t seen it, the movie centers around Caleb, a young programmer, who has
been appointed to use the Turing test to see if Ava, an android, is passable as
a true artificial intelligence. Each time I’ve seen it, I’ve watched it with
people who hadn’t experienced it before, so I’ve enjoyed hearing their take on
the film. Needless to say, it’s now one of my favorite movies of all time.
However, it made me think of the difference in perspective
people from the West, such as the U.S., and people from the East, such as
Japan, have about artificial intelligence. Through films, TV shows, and so on, the
West usually offers a cautionary tale when it comes to artificial intelligence
whereas the East romanticizes it. Why such a stark contrast? Who is right? Will
the arrival of true artificial intelligence result in our destruction or will
we be able to live with these new entities in perfect harmony?
Western Perspective
From The Terminator franchise
to Stephen Hawking himself, artificial intelligence is touted as something to
be feared. The fear of a man-made living being can be seen all the way back in
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a story
about an artificially created person. Even Frankenstein himself abandoned his
creation out of fear of what he had done. Throughout the tale, though, you start
to question what makes one human and who really is the bigger monster,
Frankenstein or his creation.
From there we get the likes of HAL-9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. An AI said never
to be wrong, his sanity declined after given the order to keep the real mission
objective secret from the crew of a space shuttle. I will always remember HAL’s
creepy rendition of “Daisy” as his memory was being removed bit by bit. You can’t
blame him; his orders conflicted with his need to be always right and helpful
to the crew. Without him, you probably wouldn’t see the likes of GLaDOS from
the Portal video game series.
And then we have Ava from Ex Machina. In the beginning, she comes across as a very curious
girl, wanting to see the world, fall in love, and, really, be human. You feel
for her plight to escape, get away from her abusive “father.” But then you
realize it’s all been a part of the Turing test; she was a mouse using Caleb as
a means to escape the maze. In that case, does she pass the test? Does her
ruthlessness show the conscience of a manipulative machine or a manipulative
human?
One common denominator between these various films and books
is the idea of hubris, of man putting himself on the same playing field as God.
With HAL, Ava, or even Frankenstein’s monster, humanity has created something
beyond an offspring but a completely new species. But should humanity take on
the role of God? I’m not a religious man, but humanity has already gone in the
direction of changing the world around them to suit their needs, for the better
and worst.
Granted, the experts who are scared aren’t scared because of
just hubris. Like Ava, an artificial intelligence could potentially use us
until we are no longer necessary. Enter the days of The Terminator, the last dregs of humanity hiding until our robot
overlords finally wipe us all out. It’s all very doom and gloom, though every
once in a while you have Western films and TV shows that tell a slightly
brighter tale, be it Short Circuit or
the recent British series Humans.
But, for the most part, people still fear the day of the Singularity, when
artificial intelligence goes beyond our capabilities to maintain.
Eastern Perspective
On the other hand, Eastern media tends to portray artificial
intelligence in a brighter light. The Ghost
in the Shell series is an excellent example of AI and human intelligence
co-existing and even merging; the difference between them is blurred. For example,
in the first film, Project 2501 is an AI born from the net and seeks to be
human through survival and propagation. On the other hand, the protagonist,
Motoko, in the second film, has her consciousness uploaded to the net,
becoming, in a way, an artificial intelligence originally born as a human
being.
My favorite video
game series, Xenosaga, portrays many
artificial people struggling with what it means to be human. KOS-MOS, the
series’ poster girl, is an emotionless killing machine, but her creator, Shion,
wants her to be so much more, treating her like a daughter. MOMO is a
biological android known as a Realian in the series, designed after her creator’s
dead daughter; she struggles to find her own identity and be more than just a
copy of someone.
Throughout various other anime, video games and manga,
androids are seen as learning creatures, starting from cold, emotionless
machines to caring people. These stories of artificial intelligence tend to
lead to the creation of “humanity” within these machines. Whereas in the West
AI is a brand new entity that could decide to wipe us out, in the East it is
almost like a new step in human evolution.
In the Korean anthology Doomsday
Book, the second film, The Heavenly
Creature, centers on a robot that has achieved enlightenment. I believe
this goes in contrast to my discussion of the Western perspective; whereas the
West fears hubris, the East embraces the soul in all things. Where The Heavenly Creature is centered around
Buddhism, I believe the Japanese perspective stems a bit from Shintoism. In Shintoism,
everything is inhabited by a spirit, including things such as trees and rocks.
With this approach, it’s easy to see why the Eastern perspective is more
favorable toward artificial intelligence. With Japan's aging population, the robot revolution is sounding more and more appealing for them. Hell, robots can get married in
Japan.
So…who is right?
It’s hard to say, really. With people like Stephen Hawking
and Elon Musk warning us about the dangers of artificial intelligence, it’s not
easy to ignore. On the flipside, you have other people claiming that AI still
has a long time to go before it becomes anywhere near as malevolent as HAL. In
the meantime, it makes great science fiction, whether you fear or romanticize
the subject. I’d like to believe in Alan Turing’s idea of teaching artificial
intelligence like a child, letting them know the difference between right and
wrong, but that may be too optimistic. For now, I’m content with having awkward
conversations with Google on my phone.
