I recently watched the film ‘The Creator’, a(nother) dystopian AI future film. Despite it’s many flaws in the filming (not the best) I thoroughly enjoyed it. Especially the special effects and general idea and concept behind it.
(Hopefully no spoiler alerts) It is set in the near future where AI is held responsible for the destruction of a major US city. There is a war between AI and the western alliance. The eastern countries embracing it and giving it a home. The premise is that they are sentient but have become demonised.
Sentient
Before I offer more critique about the film I wanted to, briefly, explore this concept of being sentient or self aware. If I remember correctly from the film, they use the self awareness of humans to augment the perception at least of being sentient.
This creates the effect and reality of sounding and behaving like humans. Hence the recognition in certain parts of the world that they have equal rights as humans. Although this is very fanciful at the moment, especially to be able to run around as a thinking machine. We could be led to believe that we are either there or nearly there currently.
Data Centres
We base our assumptions on our experience of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Gemini. They sound very human and if you then connect them to a robot from say Boston Dynamics you have the makings of the false expectation that we have arrived at sentience.
What you may not realise is that these models require huge, huge banks of computers and processing power to train and run their LLMs. Before you get worried that they are going to form an army and take over the world. You have to consider that there are literally only a handful of companies that can afford to do this. They are called data centres because of the vast amount of data they consume.
Bad Actors
I am not talking about the actors in the film but imagine a rogue state and we can all image which countries we might be thinking of. Where the state builds a supercomputer (data centre) and an army of robots that connect to it. Then operate independently of humans acting out a pre-programmed plan.
They don’t have to be walking and talking like us. Which to be very honest is really difficult but imagine drones, vehicles, or boats that could think for themselves and operate independently yet collectively. This is not so very far into the future and it would be naïve of us to think that it isn’t being considered or explored.
War
There are wars and rumours of wars. Currently we are seeing some very big conflicts and some potential conflicts. This creates uncertainties about the future and creates negative reactions. These drive innovation based on either fear, greed or both.
The arms race is big business, even the UK which seems quite benign compared to some countries is developing cutting edge weapon technology such as a laser gun and powerful attacking drones. Much of which uses Artificial Intelligence to avoid jamming technology. These machines can think for themselves if they lose contact with GPS or the human who is operating them.
Back to the film
The film could have been so much more, it was a bit superficial and could have explored the concepts in greater depth. There were times when a bit more explanation would’ve helped. Yet it was entertaining and thought provoking even if it did try to pack too much into it.
Either a longer film or maybe a sequel to develop the key ideas and concepts introduced. I am not sure it made enough money to make it viable but I do hope they do make another one. Beautifully shot with some state-of-the-camera technology I believe.
The Creator is available on Disney+
You can read more about the film here: Wikipedia
