What is A.I.? That's the first question the film poses and I was already lost from there because nobody seems to agree on anything. Interviews with leading experts in the field are juxtaposed with the story of a guy whose wife has recently become pregnant and is worried about the world their children will inherit. Predictably, it's filled with lots of doom and gloom and fearmongering, but it's a complex, multifaceted issue. Told in three parts—the pessimists, the optimists, and the realists—there is also a fourth part to the story: the people getting rich off this technology, which is really all it boils down to. Like the Space Race 2.0, it's a rush to whoever can get to the finish line first. The scary part is that this technology exists in the hands of everyone, so it can be exploited for their own gain depending on their moral values, which is where the true evil lies. At a certain point, I find myself on the side of the robots.
Part of the problem with this doc is that technology moves so quickly that a lot of this information already feels obsolete. Before long, it becomes clear that none of these so-called "experts" know what the fuck they're talking about. It's all endless speculation. There are good and bad outcomes, but nobody knows for sure what will happen. No one can predict the future, not even A.I.
In short, this movie stressed me the fuck out. I did not feel assured by the end.
2½ Arthur C. Clarke predictions out of 5
