AI movies are a hot trend recently, what with Chappie and the new Terminator sequel. Ex Machina took things in its own direction though and looked more at the ethical and psychological issues relating to robotic persons. But how does the science stack up? Well, one interesting thing worth mentioning is the fact that Ava seems to have a sense of humour in the film. Such behaviour is surprisingly top-end stuff when it comes to AI, as being able to create or understand jokes requires some pretty abstract reasoning at times. Amazingly though, scientists are hard at work to at least quantify and operationalise the idea of humour in preparation for AI experiments. You might not believe me when I tell you that theres an academic paper all about thats what she said jokes but there it is. So the concept of humour in AI is feasible. Well done, Alex Garland. Unfortunately, the way in which the whole thing is controlled is far less believable. The movie claims that Ava has a Wetware brain, which mimics human brain anatomy. Again, this is in fact a concept with real science behind it, so theres some level of believability there. However, the movie jumps so far into the future with the technology that its like watching a medieval film in which one of the knights drives around on a Segway. The fact of the matter is, creating a robotic replica of the human brain is an absolutely absurd idea at present. Weve not even worked out exactly what all the brain areas actually do right now, nor how the thing really works, let alone developed the technology to build an artificial replica. We have over 100 trillion synapses (connections between neurons) in our brains and each one is malleable enough to form new connections when we learn new skills and information. Being able to create a device that can do such a thing is a complete pipedream for now and will likely remain that for decades to come.
Peter Austin initially joined WhatCulture as an occasional contributor to our Film, Gaming and Science sections, but made the mistake of telling us that he'd been making videos in his bedroom for over a decade. Since then he's been a vital member of our YouTube team and routinely sets the standard for smart-casual wear in the office.
