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In order to do this, a persistent habit in cinema has been to cast AI in the form of a human body. Whether it\u2019s from as far back as Fritz Lang\u2019s Metropolis (1927) with Maria\u2019s robot double, or more recent examples such as the childlike android David in Steven Spielberg\u2019s A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), the question of what it is to be human is explored through the decision making of a more-than-human. But what do these embodiments of artificial intelligence tell audiences about our own moral and ethical condition?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before we dive into cinema\u2019s role in presenting these issues, it is worth noting that cinema is still struggling to overcome significant challenges in casting AI into gendered forms<\/a>. In most cases, manifestations of AI in a male form demonstrate a desire to exert power and seek intellectual superiority. Female embodiments may seek to explore the same issues but come with an added dimension of sexualisation, a trait which exemplifies the biases that lie behind some large-scale datasets<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u2018trolley problem\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While cinema audiences of the 1960s were contemplating the power of Alpha 60, a sentient computer system that has complete control of the city of Alphaville in the Jean-Luc Godard film of the same name, or HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick\u2019s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the onboard computer that prioritises its own \u2018life\u2019 and the spacecraft\u2019s mission over the lives of the crew, academics were developing thought experiments to explore moral and ethical dilemmas. Of the many experiments that emerged, the \u2018trolley problem\u2019 resonates with many of the cinematic plots through which audiences explore human deliberation and the logic of machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trolley problem is relatively simple. There is a runaway trolley (or train), ahead of which there are five people tied to the tracks. On a sidetrack is one person who is also tied down. You stand at a lever on the train and are faced with two options: do nothing and allow the train to continue on its path and kill five people, or pull the lever, divert the train toward the sidetrack and kill only one person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As AI has crept into our lives this thought experiment has become less abstract. In the hands of scientists, it has been aligned with the grand challenge to \u201chelp [the scientists] learn how to make machines moral\u201d. Studies such as Moral Machine<\/a> developed by the Scalable Cooperation group at the MIT MediaLab, place viewers in a series of scenarios in which the trolley is swapped for an autonomous vehicle. The moral dilemma is complicated through the introduction of more information about the consequences of a decision: that you might kill subjects of different ages, genders, physical health and species (human or cat).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cinematic narrative as trolley problem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, these dilemmas make for good plots in movies involving AI, immersing the viewer in a moral quandary where the decision-making of an AI in human form is in conflict with a human protagonist or a community that they represent. Most recently we see it used in the Netflix film Outside the Wire<\/a> which places a human alongside an AI, in what appears initially to be collaborative circumstances. As the story unfolds, the scriptwriters put the duo in increasingly contradictory moral dilemmas where the AI and human have differing views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/chrisspeed.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Screenshot-2021-03-24-at-12.18.49-1024x345.png\")
![McGeddon<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAs AI has crept into our lives this thought experiment has become less abstract. In the hands of scientists, it has been aligned with the grand challenge to \u201chelp [the scientists] learn how to make machines moral\u201d. Studies such as Moral Machine<\/a> developed by the Scalable Cooperation group at the MIT MediaLab, place viewers in a series of scenarios in which the trolley is swapped for an autonomous vehicle. The moral dilemma is complicated through the introduction of more information about the consequences of a decision: that you might kill subjects of different ages, genders, physical health and species (human or cat).<\/p>\n\n\n\nCinematic narrative as trolley problem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nOf course, these dilemmas make for good plots in movies involving AI, immersing the viewer in a moral quandary where the decision-making of an AI in human form is in conflict with a human protagonist or a community that they represent. Most recently we see it used in the Netflix film Outside the Wire<\/a> which places a human alongside an AI, in what appears initially to be collaborative circumstances. As the story unfolds, the scriptwriters put the duo in increasingly contradictory moral dilemmas where the AI and human have differing views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n](\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Trolley_problem#\/media\/File:Trolley_Problem.svg\"){kind=link}