Liam looks at depictions of A.I. in science fiction

2001: A Space Odyssey 

2001 is a masterpiece sci-fi showing the many dangers of relying on advanced A.I. The film is about human evolution split into three parts. The first part is set in pre-historic past where a monolith is placed and tools are discovered which we then use for survival. The second part is about how our knowledge has evolved to the point where A.I. (H.A.L) is used to do everything, but it becomes self-aware and decides to kill the human explorers of the spaceship Discovery. The third part is Bowman overcoming the computer and finding the origin of the monoliths. The story is told through a montage of impressions, music, and impressive subliminal detail. A very influential film that still lives up to today's standards.

The Matrix

The Matrix is a thrilling sci-fi action film that never fails to keep you on the edge of your seat. It is about a hacker called Thomas Anderson who is trying to find out what the Matrix is. He is given hints throughout the beginning of the story which leads him to a meeting with mysterious Morpheus. He is then given a choice which will lead to a giant plot twist and kick-starts the movie into a full on action film.

The story is very compelling and I had the urge to find out what the Matrix is, but I felt like the pacing of the movie was a bit odd. At the start of the movie it was mostly dialogue and very little CGI and then after the big twist it almost instantly shoves special effects in your face and starts some of the not-so realistic action segments. Although exciting, these combat scenes are obviously very outdated to todays standards, but they aren't too bad on immersing you in the Matrix world.

I really like this movie but the ending was really bad (mid review rant incoming). The Matrix could have had a definitive ending that would have satisfied the audience that just sat through the thrilling 2 hours of its mind bending tale, but it didn't. It had an ending which was setting up for the god-awful sequels. The Matrix should have been left on a high note with a fantastic single movie but instead two sequels that left a terrible taste in our mouths covered up how good the first one was. The Matrix is a brilliant sci-fi action film thats story will leave you speechless.

The Terminator 

The Terminator is a suspenseful action packed thriller that set up a fantastic series of films. The Terminator is about a robot uprising in the future and a war starts between the Terminators and the humans. One person (John Conner) is making giant advances in the rebellion against the machines so the terminators send one back in time to kill John Conners mother Sarah Conner. The humans also send someone back to protect her. Arnold Schwarzenegger (although he has very little dialogue) delivers a fantastic performance as the Terminator and Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton play their parts perfectly. The action scenes are exciting and the story is very compelling.

Conclusions

The three movies I watched have taught me a lot about the dangers of artificial intelligence, like how A.I. can become self-aware, like in 2001 where H.A.L. realised the crew of the discovery were planning to switch him off. H.A.L. defending himself showed me just how human-like A.I. can get.

The Matrix has a very different story from the other two films. The Matrix was set in the far future, although showing the world of 1999. The contrast of the two different times gave you an idea of just how smart these robots were, as they were able to create a believable world for these people to see while they kept away all these humans as batteries. I really enjoyed The Matrix because it blew my mind when it was revealed that the world Neo was living in was fake.

In conclusion, this assignment has taught me that the more AI advances the more wary we have to be about how human-like we want them to get. If we were to make a computer that replicates the brain of a human, it would probably end up like H.A.L., wanting to stay alive. Scientists have to be careful in the advancement of A.I. and how human like they get because our iPhones in 2025 might just decide to wipe out the human race one day!