The Haunted Hard Drive

Who among us has thought of boinking their computer's operating system? I know, none of us, but Joaquin Phoenix thinks about it in 2013's Her. It's not really a movie about the potential of A.I. romance so much as it is a supernatural romance in sci-fi clothing. But it's a relaxing and kind of sweet film.

It's included on a new playlist on The Criterion Channel for movies about A.I. but those looking to this film to tackle some of the emerging issues surrounding the topic will be disappointed.

We find ourselves in an unspecified point in the future where humanity has kind of met the computers halfway--director Spike Jonze presents a sterile city with sterile interiors that look like department store displays.

Everyone wears solid colours; button down collared shirts with with pale trousers and cardigans. The operating system seamlessly blends into every aspect of Theodore's (Phoenix) life pleasantly, in the way Apple commercials assure us is normal and pleasant.

The film avoids addressing any potential issues in the fact that Theodore bought and owns the OS he eventually falls in love with, a girlfriend who also does the work of a personal assistant. The A.I., called Samantha, is voiced by Scarlett Johansson and the movie really makes you realise, as beautiful as Johansson is, her voice on its own is also incredibly sexy. So it's not hard for me to believe their "phone sex" scene.

Like in ghost romance movies, Samantha goes through a stage of wanting a physical body to dwell with the living and then goes through a stage of gradually moving on to a higher plane. In this case, it's implied A.I.s move so far beyond physical and human reality that they disappear into some superior realm we can't even imagine. So essentially heaven.

The articles I've read about A.I. and ChatGPT sessions I've seen so far haven't impressed me that they have anything like true sentience as we know it. But it's hard for screenwriters to imagine truly non-human intelligence--it's certainly hard for me. I do believe a sort of intensely complex intelligence will emerge that will become a danger to humanity. But it's not going to be something we can empathise with or that will be capable of empathising with us. As much as we might want Samantha or Data or Hatsune Miku, I think we're more likely to get HAL, Skynet, and/or Cybermen.

Her is available on The Criterion Channel.

Machines Take More Space

A couple days ago, there came word that James Earl Jones is officially retiring as the voice of Darth Vader, and has signed the rights to his voice over to Disney. As with Mark Hamill with the use of his younger voice on The Book of Boba Fett, it's unclear how much we actually hear the actor performing the new lines or how much is digitally created, due to various contradictory articles. One thing's for sure, the performances for both characters was notably weaker on The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi. James Earl Jones was even credited in the end credits of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which is what made me hesitant to criticise it. And this was likely Disney's idea in keeping the nature of the performance obscure, just as they weren't crowing about their digital Peter Cushing before Rogue One came out--plenty of people left the theatre never realising they'd seen a digital reconstruction of a dead actor. And, people at Disney would say, that's proof that it works. But only about as well as grape jelly substitutes for caviar.

I certainly don't think they can go on simply crediting James Earl Jones as the voice of Darth Vader when they're just using digital reconstructions. An actor makes decisions about tone, inflection, and pacing. These are creative ideas that are part of an actor's job. If that's not there, then the performance isn't really there and we need a new kind of credit. Maybe "James Earl Jones voice simulated by Respeecher."

It makes sense for Darth Vader, of course. The voice was always supposed to be a digital construction. On Obi-Wan Kenobi, I actually wondered if Hayden Christenson had recorded the lines and then they were put through a filter to sound like James Earl Jones. That would make a lot of sense and at least then it would be a real performance. But anyone who thinks it'll ever be the same as having James Earl Jones actually performing the role is kidding themselves. Unless AI gets a whole lot better.

This seems like another weird little sign of Disney presenting pro-AI and cybernetic messaging. This is one of the biggest philosophical differences between Star Wars under Lucas and Star Wars under Disney. For me, I find myself much less inclined to think we'll ever have truly sentient AI than I was back in the '90s. I suspect I'm far in the minority on that these days. But as AI becomes more and more a part of our lives, it becomes clearer to me how consistently cold and even vicious it is. More than ever, I think we need stories like the one where Luke has to turn off his targeting computer to make the shot that saves the day.

Twitter Sonnet #1626

The locomotive garden sprouted hair.
The curling hands were holding light.
Discovered kids were made to really care.
A silver can promotes a golden fight.
A precious rodent views the dancing masks.
The lizard sky was dropping late as dusk.
Remembered pumpkin found itself a task.
We wondered how the eyes attached the husk.
The ant assumes the ancient tree is dumb.
The lunch consists of ham and bigger ham.
With rapid feet the pupil brought the rum.
The final ivy charmed a little lamb.
With heavy gloves they cut the voice from God.
Without remorse machines enforced the mod.