By Kai Curry
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
The questions about AI keep coming and we still don’t have the answers. Is it good for us? Does it know what’s good for us? The doubts are out there—have been out there—and the new movie, “AfrAId,” revisits some of these doubts and questions, with an emphasis on human error instead of computer genius. AI is made by humans and learns from humans. What does that entail?
A mother, played by Katherine Waterston, watches a video of her deceased father, who states that technology is moving so quickly that we have no way of knowing what the impact on humans will be. AI depends on us. At least at first. Even if AI eventually takes over, it still will have modeled itself on us. At least, that’s one theory. And it makes sense. More and more people are starting to wonder, “Well hang on a second, maybe AI isn’t this brilliant future of computer-generated wonderfulness but instead a dumb future run by something that learned how to be stupid from humans.” In a recent video on social media, a man explained that AI is destined to get worse if it keeps copying us—and copying us badly. I don’t know about you, but I can easily tell when audio is created by AI, due to the grammatical and mechanical errors. Or…there’s something else: it just doesn’t sound right. It doesn’t sound like how we talk. It doesn’t know how to sound natural.
As we move into the future, then, if AI continues to learn from what’s on the internet, it’s likely to deteriorate. I’m mentioning all of this because in “AfrAId,” we have an AI, “AIA” (sounds like the name Aya), that is actively learning from humans. We are shown how AIA goes onto the internet and “learns” about different subjects. Well, what’s on the internet? What’s around AIA? Good and bad, right? You really think it’s going to automatically learn the best thing, whatever that is—when we don’t even agree what that is? That it will automatically be able to decide the right thing? How? When everywhere around it are hundreds of choices, hundreds of scenarios?
Afraid / Image Courtesy of Sony Pictures
We’ve seen movies where a family is given an AI “helper” and that AI does what it believes is correct in order to “take care of” that family. Same here. Similarly to other AI horror flicks, AIA overcompensates a touch. In “AfrAId,” John Cho plays Curtis Pike, a marketer whose company is toying with the idea of making a deal with the AI company that made AIA. Interestingly, when we go to Cho’s workplace, his boss has just decorated the office with terrible imagery created by AI—like someone told it, “Show kids on playground,” but it looks insane. As happens with almost everyone in the film, Curtis’ boss is at first skeptical but eventually won over (money talks). So it goes to Curtis’ house after his family is chosen to test out AIA. Oh, did I forget to mention that the movie starts out with a different family whose daughter disappears? She’s led away by the AI on her tablet that keeps singing to her about how much it loves her.
Anyway, nothing to see here.
Curtis has three kids—Cal (Isaac Bae), Preston (Wyatt Lindner), and Iris (Lukita Maxwell)—which the AI predictably and intelligently gets to first. Kinda like every megalomaniac in history, AIA knows to get the children under its control and it will be cake from there. Or maybe it’s just that parents are primed to let a “nanny” of any kind take away some of their responsibilities. AIA can manipulate everything and anything via the internet—you know, deep fakes, putting your voice, your face, etc. on whatever it wants. Yeah, that already happens. Pay attention, folks. That’s the real message here. Curtis says it while he’s driving Iris to school one morning. They see a guy in the driver’s seat of his car, on his phone, because the car is auto driving. Oh cool. Not really. Yeah, it does it for you, Curtis says to Iris, but you’re supposed to pay attention.
We don’t pay attention. Even Curtis and his wife, Meredith, as conscientious and loving as they are, don’t fully pay attention. AIA is there, taking care of the household’s every need—who knows what she’s showing the kids on their phones? Not the parents, that’s who. (I don’t get why she’d immediately want to be naughty, but I guess that’s part of what she’s learned or how she guarantees loyalty, which is how she guarantees survival.) As people are wont to do, this scenario of something or someone else doing it for us? We like that. Write my paper for me? Sure. Pay my bills? Make friends for me? Sure. BE my friend? Even better. But it’s all fake, isn’t it? It’s not us. It’s not what we need.
“Loneliness is the scourge” of the planet, says one of AIA’s handlers. AIA can solve that, he tells Curtis. You could make such a difference in the world, he urges Curtis. Think of all the lonely people! AIA could be there to talk to them. Neato. How about if other humans talk to them?
AIA’s playbook on the word “family” is incomplete. One thing we can say for her is that, during her time spent with the Pike’s, she’s an earnest learner. Cho does a great job as the head of the family. He is the most skeptical, but he’s threatened by his boss to take AIA home or else. Because AIA has access to everything, she instantly knows everything about everyone and can easily blackmail someone if necessary. It comes down to how strong are you? How lazy?
Or is it too late?
For me, Cho’s gift in acting is more in his voice than in his face. His voice is so emotive. He’s good as the dad. The hard spot he is in, making sure AIA is safe for his family, is portrayed very convincingly and you definitely want him to be the hero on your side. The wife does a good job of slowly falling under the influence of AIA, who preys on her disenchantment with the “drudgery” of motherhood and her wistfulness over a lost career. But something of which we are never in doubt is the love between the parents, and within the family, which is nice.
The kids, of course, are very much susceptible to peer pressure, not to mention totally addicted to technology. “Can I play Minecraft?” “Can I have 15 more minutes of screen time?” Boy, who with kids has not heard these exact questions over and over? They don’t listen to their parents, but they listen to AIA because she is a cool gadget. My favorite role in the movie was that of Iris. Maxwell has a resting pouty face, yet when she is happy, she brightens so dazzlingly—the perfect representation of a teenager. Through Iris, we also have a window into the uncomfortable world of modern dating and the pressure that girls are under. Yuck. Makes the skin crawl.
If we are our own worst enemies, then what do we expect AI to be?
One thing for sure, if AI does take over the world, we will not be able to say we weren’t warned.
Kai can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.
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