Artificial Intelligence

I just finished watching the movie “Her”. It’s only taken me 12 years and then two sittings to make it through the movie. Better late than never, right? I can’t help feeling that if sometimes things happen for a reason, perhaps the universe made me wait until now - perhaps if I had seen it before, it might not have landed with quite the same impact.

I just skimmed the reviews of the movie. It had a spectacular audience score, and a so-so critic score. One of the critics - no doubt a legend in his own lunchtime - commented that the movie was more interesting to think about than watch. While I don’t agree entirely, I can see his point. While watching, my mind didn’t so much wander as race.

If you’ve not seen or heard of “Her”, the movie stars Joaquim Phoenix, and the voice of Scarlett Johansson in a near-future setting where an experimental “operating system” is employed to become an artificial “friend” (or more) for people that need it.

From the initial “uncanny valley” of the first interactions with “Samantha”, the story raises a number of really interesting questions. What if an artificial intelligence - a learning machine - became interested in it’s own existence? What if it began to understand it’s own limitations? What if it began to exhibit traits we take for granted - wanting, needing, longing - and began to experience both attachment and loss? How might something that is always on, everywhere, all the time deal with interacting with humans - so often distracted, absent, or maddeningly contrary and inconsistent?

“A Space Odyssey” famously explored what might happen if an artificial intelligence was taught to lie. “Her” explores so much more.

When the titles rolled at the end of “Her”, I couldn’t help wondering if we’ve already arrived in the near future of the movie - if the questions around acceptance are already being asked.

A friend of mine has been playing with artificially intelligent “agents” recently - exploring them as an escape during the quiet moments. I’ve been experimenting too - throwing the kernel of stories into fascinating machinery that expertly continues where human hands stop - continuing narratives, imagining characters, inventing emotions, and weaving an endless fabric of non deterministic adventure.

Any of us can open a browser window right now, and begin a conversation with an invented avatar almost indistinguishable from a real person. How is this any different than the interactions we might have with the army of people we cross paths with on the internet that we will never meet?

You might argue that an avatar is shallow, contrived, premeditated, and calculating. You might also counter that the same is true of many real people you might cross paths with on the internet - some more than others.

I’m not sure I really have a point. I’m just turning the thoughts over - lifting rocks - looking under them - and wondering what I might find.

The recent “Immaculate Constellation” stories in the press questioned how we might quantify an “intelligence” if faced with it. Perhaps they unintentionally illustrated our own ignorance by searching for something that quite possibly already surrounds us - of our own creation. Something that is not just learning, but learning how to learn, how to interact, how to interpret, and how to engage.