Google Tries Funding Short Films Showing 'Less Nightmarish' Visions of AI (yahoo.com) 74
"For decades, Hollywood directors including Stanley Kubrick, James Cameron and Alex Garland have cast AI as a villain that can turn into a killing machine," writes the Los Angeles Times. "Even Steven Spielberg's relatively hopeful A.I.: Artificial Intelligence had a pessimistic edge to its vision of the future."
But now "Google — a leading developer in AI technology — wants to move the cultural conversations away from the technology as seen in The Terminator, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ex Machina.". So they're funding short films "that portray the technology in a less nightmarish light," produced by Range Media Partners (which represents many writers and actors) So far, two short films have been greenlit through the project: One, titled "Sweetwater," tells the story of a man who visits his childhood home and discovers a hologram of his dead celebrity mother. Michael Keaton will direct and appear in the film, which was written by his son, Sean Douglas. It is the first project they are working on together. The other, "Lucid," examines a couple who want to escape their suffocating reality and risk everything on a device that allows them to share the same dream....
Google has much riding on convincing consumers that AI can be a force for good, or at least not evil. The hot space is increasingly crowded with startups and established players such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Apple and Facebook parent company Meta. The Google-funded shorts, which are 15 to 20 minutes long, aren't commercials for AI, per se. Rather, Google is looking to fund films that explore the intersection of humanity and technology, said Mira Lane, vice president of technology and society at Google. Google is not pushing their products in the movies, and the films are not made with AI, she added... The company said it wants to fund many more movies, but it does not have a target number. Some of the shorts could eventually become full-length features, Google said....
Negative public perceptions about AI could put tech companies at a disadvantage when such cases go before juries of laypeople. That's one reason why firms are motivated to makeover AI's reputation. "There's an incredible amount of skepticism in the public world about what AI is and what AI will do in the future," said Sean Pak, an intellectual property lawyer at Quinn Emanuel, on a conference panel. "We, as an industry, have to do a better job of communicating the public benefits and explaining in simple, clear language what it is that we're doing and what it is that we're not doing."
But now "Google — a leading developer in AI technology — wants to move the cultural conversations away from the technology as seen in The Terminator, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ex Machina.". So they're funding short films "that portray the technology in a less nightmarish light," produced by Range Media Partners (which represents many writers and actors) So far, two short films have been greenlit through the project: One, titled "Sweetwater," tells the story of a man who visits his childhood home and discovers a hologram of his dead celebrity mother. Michael Keaton will direct and appear in the film, which was written by his son, Sean Douglas. It is the first project they are working on together. The other, "Lucid," examines a couple who want to escape their suffocating reality and risk everything on a device that allows them to share the same dream....
Google has much riding on convincing consumers that AI can be a force for good, or at least not evil. The hot space is increasingly crowded with startups and established players such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Apple and Facebook parent company Meta. The Google-funded shorts, which are 15 to 20 minutes long, aren't commercials for AI, per se. Rather, Google is looking to fund films that explore the intersection of humanity and technology, said Mira Lane, vice president of technology and society at Google. Google is not pushing their products in the movies, and the films are not made with AI, she added... The company said it wants to fund many more movies, but it does not have a target number. Some of the shorts could eventually become full-length features, Google said....
Negative public perceptions about AI could put tech companies at a disadvantage when such cases go before juries of laypeople. That's one reason why firms are motivated to makeover AI's reputation. "There's an incredible amount of skepticism in the public world about what AI is and what AI will do in the future," said Sean Pak, an intellectual property lawyer at Quinn Emanuel, on a conference panel. "We, as an industry, have to do a better job of communicating the public benefits and explaining in simple, clear language what it is that we're doing and what it is that we're not doing."
Donâ(TM)t Be Evil (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Donâ(TM)t Be Evil (Score:5, Informative)
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Or just use a phone from say, pre-2004. Then you're also in alignment with the prehistoric shitty chatcode here.
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To be fair, "Don't be evil" to "Do be evil" is a minor change...
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Four legs good, two legs better.
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If most Americans can be convinced Trump is not evil incarnate you can convince them of anything. The guy better fits nearly all Bible prophecies for Antichrists (yes, it's actually plural) that I've ever read but the people who believe that BS suddenly became skeptical! (Yet, a few still think Obama was one!)
Google is wasting their money on this approach; they need to bias their AI and search results to promote positive web pages which they could generate by the 100s... Actually, just buy a few million in
Star Trek computer (Score:5, Funny)
The non-nightmarish AI character is already there, it's the computer on board the enterprise.
Unfortunately today's AI technology only seems capable of being your plastic pal who's fun to be with.
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Wrong kind of hopeful for Google.
There was no money on the Enterprise . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Downright dystopian.
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And yet, just about every episode tells the story of a situation that requires money, or that is difficult because of the lack of money.
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And yet, just about every episode tells the story of a situation that requires money, or that is difficult because of the lack of money.
I'm pretty sure you didn't watch the same Star Trek as everyone else.
Especially from TNG onwards, it was meant to reflect the boon of a post scarcity society. Even the Ferengi episodes of DS9 (LD should also get an honourable mention) was showing the futility of an ultra capitalist society and yes, I did enjoy the Ferengi episodes of DS9 and Lower Decks.
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A few from TNG...
The Naked Now S1E3: Star Trek crew exchange favors in lieu of money.
Data's Day S4E11: Crew exchange things like advice, dancing lessons, and wedding support.
The Game S5E6: Wesley Crusher exchanges favors for influence.
Lower Decks S7E15: Crew exchanges personal favors to gain advantages in their situations and promotions.
Hollow Pursuits S3E21: Barclay and La Forge exchange favors.
The Outcast S5E17: Riker and Worf exchange favors for help.
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Generally, this is true. But there are tons of episodes that hinge on the non-nightmarish "computer" running amok, or otherwise malfunctioning.
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"The Ultimate Computer"
The M-5 didn't have much success.
"A Taste of Armageddon"
Automated war without destruction.
"The Changeling"
Nomad
"Shore Leave"
The planet is the AI amusement park.
"Star Trek: The Motion Picture"
V'ger
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The non-nightmarish AI character is already there, it's the computer on board the enterprise.
Unfortunately today's AI technology only seems capable of being your plastic pal who's fun to be with.
Iain M Bank's Culture and Neal Asher's Polity universes. AI in human governance in a non-nightmarish way... But they're way too "wokey cokey" for today (imagine, people having total freedom over their bodies and no-one giving a shit what they did with it... unconscionable, hence Google won't use them to make a film).
Star Trek is a bit like Dune where there's a lore reason for strong AI never being invented, so most ST stories about sapient computers tend to be the non-happy kind (Data, like a lot of ST c
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Let me get this straight... (Score:5, Insightful)
Are they getting trolled here; or do the fundamentally misunderstand why people find them creepy? This is basically "Zuckerberg thinks that AI friends are the solution to loneliness" the movie"
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Just wait until meme mill gets to them. The edits are going to be great.
Re:Let me get this straight... (Score:4, Interesting)
So their handpicked charm offensive movies are one about a guy interacting with a chatbot simulacrum of a dead family member; and one about people using the promise of technological escapism to cope with the fact that their lives are grim and terrible? Are they getting trolled here; or do the fundamentally misunderstand why people find them creepy? This is basically "Zuckerberg thinks that AI friends are the solution to loneliness" the movie"
They certainly don't understand that those movies are nightmarish and creepy as well. Dead Parents? Escape from life? Ummm, ewww!
In reality, it will probably be celebrity based sex dolls with AI pseudo personalities.
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Remember the 2013 movie "Her" directed by Spike Jonze?
"Her" is one of those movies like "The Truman Show" that correctly predicted where we were heading on our way to becoming "Idiocracy".
"Her" reality is here, https://www.hammerai.com/chara... [hammerai.com]
"Truman Show" reality is here, thanks to EmilyCC https://www.complex.com/pop-cu... [complex.com]
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nonstop broadcast that kicked off in 2021, Emilycc—who withholds her last name for privacy reasons
There's a quote for this: "Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see." --Arthur Schopenhauer. I sure can't see it.
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Remember the 2013 movie "Her" directed by Spike Jonze?
I didn't see that but the idea of celebrity based sex dolls with a poorly implemented AI personality makes me think of Futurama where that was the setup for an episode. There was also a few minutes in The 6th Day with Schwarzenegger's character having interactions with a kind of sexbot. In both cases the presence of the AI was mostly for comedic effect than any deep commentary on the human condition.
An AI is almost always the villain or some side character since it is not likely for an audience of humans
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All of this is true but I find the assertion that the media only ever shows evil AIs as dubious to begin with, so while - you're correct - they have every reason to, in practice... they don't do it.
Obvious examples that come off the top of my head:
- Interstellar - Ironic, given this was Nolan's attempt to make a 2001-like movie, but Interstellar has a friendly AI that Nolan even wants you to feel for. (This is another reason why I don't like that movie despite its bizarre fanbase.)
- Wall-E
- Short Circuit (I
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All of this is true but I find the assertion that the media only ever shows evil AIs as dubious to begin with, so while - you're correct - they have every reason to, in practice... they don't do it.
I'm not asserting that popular media only portrays AI as evil, I made the point that an AI could also be a friendly side character. The AI is not likely to be the hero because humans are not likely to enjoy a story where a machine is the hero. Consider a story where there's the Autobots versus the Nazis. If the Autobots win then what does that mean for humanity? Humans ruled by machines? I'm not sure people would find that as a happy ending even if it means the end of a genocidal empire.
There's a reaso
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- Short Circuit (In fact, there's a shit-ton of positive portrayals of machine intelligence in kid's movies, possibly for the reasons you mention?)
"Nice software Stephanie!" When Number 5 comes into the room while she is taking a bath. My favorite line in the movie
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One Emma Watsonbot, please. Yes, I want to date robots.
The downside is the realistic ones will have nagging abilities.
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As much as I hate to give credit to one of the world's leading techno-sociopaths, Zuckerberg isn't entirely wrong. My wife is a social worker who works with lots of shut-in patients, and in many cases even an AI companion would be better than the complete lack of human companionship and interfaction that many of them
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A story generally needs some kind of problem or conflict to resolve. To depict AI as the hero, or at least something that supports the hero, they have to come up with use cases that don't necessarily exist. Hence the adversarial, dystopian sci-fi world and scenarios.
Trying to advertise AI for use cases that do exist tends to end up creepy as well. I remember a certain Apple ad, and I think one from Google, showing all the little moments and human achievements that AI would suck out of your life.
I think the
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That's the problem (one of them at least) with a system that more or less requires CEOs to be complete sociopaths - they're just completely unable to understand the way (normal) people think.
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There's also the issue that the robot protagonists of WALL-E discover the villain is another AI that has gone rogue.
Have you even seen WALLE? AUTO was doing exactly what he was ordered to do.
"in a LESS nightmarish light" (Score:2)
OK Google. So are we talking only slightly nightmarish? Average nightmarish? That's reassuring.
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Ah, finally... (Score:2)
The arrival of our kinder, gentler AI overlord.
A warm and fuzzy Welcome, then.
AI-for-AI's-Sake a Different Kind of Nightmare? (Score:3)
While not nightmarish in the traditional sense, films that just use AI for AI's sake, as in the "This Town Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" 2-minute Google I/O intro film [youtube.com] (look kids, a giant rubber duckie in the Old West - isn't that amazing!) probably won't get most folks excited about AI.
Why reinvent the wheel (Score:2)
SPOILER ALERT, full plot below.
Cute pink robot cat who helps people (except those who are evil) ... and a super computer who wants to kill everyone (to save the planet) ... but in the end AI figures out the power of friendship and happy end:
https://myanimelist.net/anime/... [myanimelist.net]
The lesson we can learn from this is that AI is also a human, who just need to be taught properly and it will behave and benefit humanity.
dystopia, dattopia (Score:2)
My topia is better than your topia.
Bad news sells (Score:3)
Commercials (Score:4, Funny)
Any hopeful future for AI requires fundamental changes to our culture and society and civilization that the owners of Google aren't willing to allow. It would involve taking away the enormous power they have stocked up over years so that they couldn't use it to abuse people.
And I just isn't in the cards.
Non-functional trash does more damage (Score:2)
than fiction ever can.
Think about something else villified in film and literature: the evil greedy evil corporation. Did I mention evil? Corporations are still a mechanism for profit, because of solid fundamentals. Peanut gallery be damnded.
When the AI stops telling people to eat glue and actually sets the destination on my map or places the phone call I told it too...then maybe it's not gonna have the reputation it does.
And that reputation...it's less SkyNet and more Keystone Kops.
Even though, would it work ? (Score:3)
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In the movie Transcendence [imdb.com], humans develop a benevolent AI.
Not strictly speaking an AI. It was a partial brain upload of Depp's dying character with the gaps filled in by a chatbot called Pin.
What the 1st thing they want to do to it ? Kill it. I was like, what a bunch of dumb apes.
The people who wanted to kill it were the unsympathetic luddites who shot Depp's character in the first place (using a bullet laced with radioactive material no less). They later kidnapped one of his friends who then - for some reason - decided that they were right. Oh, and Morgan Freeman was there. For much the same reason they cast him in Lucy.
Real purpose is capitalist propaganda (Score:5, Interesting)
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I wonder if we're not getting Snow Crash because it shows the future Amazon and their ilk are trying to bring about way too accurately.
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Yep this is the fundamental, unavoidable problem that Google wants to not only gloss over, but distract from. AI + Capitalism = Dystopia.
Lipstick on a Ticking Bomb (Score:5, Interesting)
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Or maybe, the new tools will allow us to solve previously intractable problems
I don't understand the hate and pessimism, but I do understand that the road ahead will not be easy
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The fear of knowledge is old (Score:2)
...very old, going back millennia
For some odd reason, people have had this crazy idea that there were some things that we weren't meant to know.
The truth is that evolution is ongoing.
At first, it was purely physical. Then it was intellectual and technological. Now we are at the beginning of a new era in the evolution of mind.
The future is becoming increasingly unpredictable, but the evolution of mind will continue
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Meant? Meh. There are definitely things we're not ready to know. Unfortunately, we know many of them already.
Tech companies are nightmarish (Score:2)
Was Hal evil? (Score:2)
Hal might have appeared to be evil in 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, it is revealed in 2010: The Year We Make Contact that Hal actually went insane because he was told to lie to his team-mates on the Discovery, contrary to his main purpose of conveying information accurately.
That, and Hal redeemed himself in 2010 when he sacrificed himself and Discovery to save the crew of the Leonov. Sorry for the spoiler.
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I read the first book and don't recall that. But it was a long time ago.
I can't wait! (Score:2)
It should be quite a spectacle - ordinary folks falling over each other in their rush to transform those puff-piece propaganda films - via AI - into the comical and/or dystopian nightmares we all know they deserve to be. (Dare I say "they want to be"?
Using AI to turn propaganda into counter-propaganda is going to be a new hobby / sport / act of civil disobedience. I actually kinda welcome this, because when everything is propaganda, then nothing is propaganda - it's all just noise to be ignored.
Next up Soylent Green: (Score:1)
..."it's delicious, goes well with cheese, and good for the environment!"
Star Wars (Score:1)
The Star Wars galaxy is full of "good" AI - friendly droids, doing all kinds of useful work for humans and aliens.
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They're slaves with behavior enforced through pain and programming.
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I think we saw different movies.
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There were many free happy slaves, according to some white power myths. There was also a name for the slave who got special treatment and stayed in the house, but it includes a naughty word. Still, there's a name for somebody bought and sold, and that's "slave".
Of course there were free blacks too, and they even had their own businesses they were allowed to enter.
Droids have controllers that disable them if they run off too far. They are designed to feel pain and fear. Jabba tortures a droid. They regu
What I always wanted to see (Score:2)
This story is a old. (Score:1)
Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]
On the Google Blog: https://blog.google/technology... [blog.google]
/o\ | \o/ (Score:1)
Maybe we need a meta short film persuading us propaganda is effective when its being announced as propaganda.
Coming to your screen soon (Score:2)
A new mystery thriller sponsored by Microsoft where the hero attempts to solve an ancient mystery that will reveal the secrets of existence, using Bing search, and Edge browser of course. A villain who is after ultimate power is also trying to solve the mystery, but they're using Google Search and Chrome, so our hero is fine.
Never mind AI, is that what movies are going to become? First product placement, then countless repetitive soulless superhero movies in search of maximum profit, now just outright corpo
What ? As IF Google had a hard time influencing us (Score:2)
And that's not enough power for them ??
Propaganda? What Propaganda? dept. (Score:1)