Critique Paper

For me, the movie “Ex Machina” is a psychological science fiction film that
focuses on the idea of Artificial Intelligence (AI) having the consciousness of a
human being. Aside from depicting the future of AI, it also displayed various
philosophical concepts such as gender and affections.

The story begins when Caleb a programmer was chosen by Nathan the
BlueBook’s CEO to administer the Turing test to a robot he made named Eva. This
test was to determine if the AI passes as human. He had seven sessions with Eva
and these sessions became evident that an AI can be self-aware and deceptive as
being shown towards the ending of the movie.

Ava’s escape from the research facility and into the real world showed that she
passes as AI with consciousness of a human being. She develop self-awareness
by wanting to be free and deception when she used Caleb to kill her creator and
later left Caleb imprisoned inside the research facility.

I think their concept of future AI is a possibility, but for now this is not true.
There are three types of consciousness, the first level (C0) represents calculations
that happen without our knowledge, such as during facial recognition. The second
level (C1) involves global awareness of information or the actively sifting and
evaluating quantities of data to make an informed, deliberate choice in response to
specific circumstances. The Third level (C2) is where individuals recognize and
correct mistakes and investigate the unknown (Weisberger, 2018).

According to Elkind, self-awareness emerges in the last level. Today, an AI can

process the first two levels and not the last level of human consciousness.
Computational models are made of intricate software programs and not the human
brain therefore it cannot replicate how human brains discern what is right and what it
wrong. Incorporating it to a machine is very questionable since our human brain itself
and human consciousness is still a mystery. If we cannot fully answer what is
consciousness and how we acquire it so what more if we incorporate it in AIs.

Even though the movie is science fiction, the creation of AI portrayed in the
movie seems so realistic maybe due to our modern science and advancement in
technology. The movie may be alarming because of the possibility that AI can
dominate the human race but I really believe that this is too complex yet and far
from happening.

I do not like the representation of women in the movie because they are shown
as sexual object. We can see that humans in the movie are men, and the robots
Kyoko and Eva appear as women. Kyoko is being depicted as the one who does all
chores and get used for sexual pleasure. I think this is problematic because it
presents gendered future that aggravates towards further feminization of technology
(Buchnan, 2015).

Although Nathan clarifies that Ava is not gendered, he molds her in the liking of
Caleb and gave her feminine features that lured Caleb into actually liking her. And
from this, I have learned that human’s weakness is also their strength. Our emotions
differentiate us from AI.

The exchange of lines between Nathan and Caleb are sometimes satirical. I think
in this way, helped making the movie more relatable and less boring since almost
everyone love a bit of ridicule to cut the awkwardness of the scene. This also made
the very tense interactions to be lighter and flow smoother. Too much seriousness
can be boring and monotone.

For the cinematography, I appreciated the element of nature inserted after every
intimate scene inside the research facility. For me, the nature views such as, the
mountains, trees and a waterfall balances the weight of the gloom or the prisoning
feelings by giving us peaceful and calming vibes. Being a claustrophobic person, the
balance between freedom and cage really helps me to enjoy the movie without
suffocating to finish it.

Overall, I would rate this movie 9/10 because it made me into looking more about
the possibility of AIs passing as human. In terms of execution, the mystery and the
slow build-up of the scene create the perfect suspense to keep me on watching
without falling asleep. The great visual representation while watching also
contributes to the overall factor of my critique. It was definitely interesting and must
see.
References
Live Science. (2018). Will AI Ever Became Conscious?. Retrieved
from https://www.livescience.com/62656-when-will-ai-be-conscious.html

New York Vulture. (2015). Does Ex Machina Have A Woman Problem, or Is Its Take
----------on Gender Truly Futuristic? Retrieved from
https://www.vulture.com/2015/04/why-ex-machina-take-on-gender-is-so-advance
.html