Last week, we watched The Matrix, a movie that talked about a simulated world for humans as their physical bodies were harvested for their body heat. Considered as science fiction, it showcased the advancement of artificial intelligence, which eventually overpowered the humans. And while the point of the movie is to address life in a simulated world, I have more interest in the technical side of things, specifically the artificial intelligence.

Having studied computer science myself, I always hear about advancements in the AI field, whether it’s AlphaGo beating a world champion at the game Go, the development of self-driving cars, or technologies that learn to recognize animals in an image. And in the movie, a character named Mr. Smith is a program designed to remove defective programs as well as maintain the stability of the matrix. However, after being eliminated by the main character, Mr. Smith becomes a virus and ends up wanting to challenge the matrix itself. I think that this was an interesting point because scientists like Stephen Hawking have expressed concerns about AI eventually becoming smarter than humans and possibly taking over. Could developed AI potentially take a turn for the worse and be like Mr. Smith?

And coupled with the uprising of virtual reality, which helps simulate digital environments through a combination of hardware and software, are humans not becoming capable of building their own matrix? With these new technologies, I think it’s clear that we’re not living in a virtual world, but this movie has certainly served as a gateway for many people to relate to on a daily basis. Since life seems so normal, is everything being simulated? Would we ever know? Who would be the first to find out?

I find it interesting that years ago, no-one would have thought that humans could be this close to creating virtual worlds like the matrix. And while I personally don’t believe that we’re living in a matrix, this movie has certainly left me entertained from the start.