Last night’s film was both utterly shocking and, in hindsight, rather cliché. Ex Machina ticks all of the boxes of a typical AI-centric film: a creator who ignores the possible sentience of their creation, a computer who blurs the line between human and machine, and a debate that pervades the movie about the nature of humanity. The movie centered around two computer scientists attempting to measure if the AI could pass the Turing Test, a historical test designed by mathematician Alan Turing would determine a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. As a computer science major who took an AI class last semester, I could not help but be intrigued. However, as the movie progressed, it was clear that the movie was as much a discussion of human nature as it was about the progress of technology; arguably, one cannot occur without the other. The ending showed this most clearly: the complete role reversal of the AI and the human characters raises many questions. Can we classify this computer as a human, given that it has shown to have emotions, self-interest and awareness, and even a gender identity? Who deserves our sympathy more: the humans, merely because they are human (despite their unethical actions), or the AI, who is not human but has been mistreated? ‘In the end, none of the characters really deserve sympathy, and maybe that is the point: the AI behaves just as cruelly as the humans for her own self-gain, which makes her no different to us.

This movie definitely gave off Black Mirror and Jurassic Park vibes, forcing us to question the course of our technological progress. However, I saw this movie less as a warning that it would be a bad idea to pursue advanced technology and more of a warning that we must proceed with kindness and empathy. If the creator of the AI had treated her like a human, the tragic events of the movie would not have unfolded.