Sci-fi and cyberpunk lovers should gear up for July 1, when a collection of films exploring the use of artificial intelligence over the last 50 years will debut on the streaming service Criterion Channel. With release years from 1974 to 2021, the 16 live-action and animated films in the collection peel back the layers of paranoia, mystification, and idealized futures that surround the integration of AI into both daily life and imagined superhuman universes.
These features are especially relevant as open-source AI programs quickly emerge across dozens of industries, often with limited regulations. From generative image tools like DALL-E 2 and Midjourney to the newly released text-generator ChatGPT, AI has become widely useful or at least entertaining to those with access. The concept of AI human augmentation is becoming more and more tangible as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain implant for human trials (despite earlier trials having killed approximately 1,500 animals as of last December). Through humor, horror, and special effects, the films in Criterion’s selection explore the existential benefits and ramifications of these very concepts before their physical realizations.
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One of the earliest films included is director John Carpenter’s feature debut Dark Star (1974), a low-budget sci-fi comedy following a team of blundering astronauts who use artificially intelligent bombs to destroy “rogue planets” as the human race colonizes outer space. Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Ian Cheng’s Life After BOB: The Chalice Study (2021) are among the animated selections that delve into AI enhancements to the human body. Ghost in the Shell, an anime adaptation of the 1989 cyberpunk manga series by Masamune Shirow, questions the meaning of humanity in a world where people can integrate cybernetic augmentations into their bodies by connecting their brains to the internet or even replacing their brains and bodies completely to become cyborgs. Ghost in the Shell also considers the vulnerabilities of such technology via a powerful villain who can hack and control those with artificial cyberbrains.
In Life After BOB: The Chalice Study, Cheng, an artist and simulation designer, uses the cinematic properties of the game development software Unity to tell us the story of Chalice, a 10-year-old whose scientist father implants an experimental AI program called “BOB” (Bag of Beliefs) in her nervous system. As BOB takes the reins of Chalice’s life, she retreats to the backseat and wonders existentially about what is left in the world for humans.
Further exploring the role of humanity amidst the rise of artificial intelligence is Korean-American filmmaker Kogonada’s After Yang (2021), which illustrates a more solemn tale of a family purchasing a secondhand “culture unit” in the form of a robotic teenage boy named Yang to help connect their adoptive Chinese daughter to her heritage. When Yang is found unresponsive one day, the family sets out to find a way to revive him through illicit means in light of his expired warranty.
Several features imagine a shared sexuality between humans and artificially intelligent programs or anthropomorphized cyborgs. Donald Cammell’s Demon Seed (1977) is a sci-fi horror film that explores the nefarious autonomy of an artificially intelligent computing system that procreates with a human woman. Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Teknolust (2002), in which Tilda Swinton plays four separate cyborg clones who need to reproduce with Y chromosomes strictly acquired from human semen, tells another story of bio-technological unity through sexuality and love using the most early-2000s special effects and soundtrack one can fathom. Spike Jonze’s Her (2013) portrays a burgeoning romantic and sexual relationship between a shy and divorced man who works as a professional writer and his feminine-coded virtual assistant program, voiced by actor Scarlett Johansson. The film highlights that even though artificial intelligence can be deceptively personal, it’s incapable of channeling true humanity.
Seasoned with both campy cult classics and thought-provoking storytelling, Criterion Channel’s upcoming collection seeks to answer the existential questions pertaining to our increased reliance on AI as it presently nestles and grows within our culture. The selected features will be available for those with subscriptions or free trials to the streaming platform.
Source: Hyperallergic.com