Sci-fi and cyberpunk fans should prepare for July 1, when a collection of films exploring the use of artificial intelligence over the past 50 years debuts on the Criterion Channel streaming service. With release years from 1974 to 2021, the 16 action and animated films in the collection peel back the layers of paranoia, mystification and idealized futures that surround the integration of AI into everyday life and imagined superhuman universes.
These features are particularly relevant as open source AI programs are rapidly emerging across dozens of industries, often with limited regulations. From generative image tools like DALL-E 2 and Mid-term to the new release ChatGPT text generator, AI has become widely useful or at least entertaining for those who have access to it. The concept of AI human augmentation is becoming more tangible as The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain implant for human trials (although earlier trials have killed around 1,500 animals in last december). Through humor, horror and special effects, the films in Criterion’s selection explore the existential benefits and ramifications of these very concepts before their physical realizations.
One of the first films included is director John Carpenter’s feature debut Black Star (1974), a low-budget sci-fi comedy following a team of clumsy astronauts who use artificially intelligent bombs to destroy “rogue planets” as the human race colonizes space. At Mamoru Oshii’s ghost in the shell (1995) and Ian Cheng Life After BOB: The Chalice Study (2021) are among the animated selections that delve into AI enhancements to the human body. ghost in the shellan anime adaptation of Masamune Shirow’s 1989 cyberpunk manga series, challenges the meaning of humanity in a world where people can embed cybernetic augmentations into their bodies by connecting their brains to the internet or even replacing their brains altogether and their bodies to become cyborgs. ghost in the shell also considers the vulnerabilities of this technology via a powerful villain who can hack and control those with artificial cyberbrains.
In Life After BOB: The Chalice Study, Cheng, an artist and simulation designer, uses the cinematic properties of game development software Unity to tell us the story of Chalice, a 10-year-old boy whose scientist father implants an experimental AI program called “BOB” ( Bag of Beliefs) in his nervous system. As BOB takes the reins of Chalice’s life, she retreats to the backseat and existentially questions what’s left in the world for humans.
Korean-American filmmaker Kogonada further explores humanity’s role in the face of the rise of artificial intelligence. After Yang (2021), which illustrates a more solemn story of a family buying a second-hand “cultural unit” in the form of a robotic teenager named Yang to help connect their adopted Chinese daughter to her heritage. When Yang is found unresponsive one day, the family sets out to find a way to revive him through illicit means in light of his expired warranty.
Several features imagine shared sexuality between humans and artificially intelligent programs or anthropomorphized cyborgs. by Donald Cammel demon seed (1977) is a sci-fi horror film that explores the nefarious autonomy of an artificially intelligent computer system that procreates with a human female. Lynn Hershman Leeson Teknolust (2002), in which Tilda Swinton plays four distinct cyborg clones who must reproduce with Y chromosomes strictly acquired from human sperm, tells another story of biotechnological unity through sexuality and love using the effects earliest specials and soundtrack of the 2000s. brews. At Spike Jonze’s Her (2013) depicts a budding romantic and sexual relationship between a shy, divorced man who works as a professional writer and his female-coded virtual assistant program, voiced by actress Scarlett Johansson. The film emphasizes that while artificial intelligence can be deceptively personal, it is incapable of channeling true humanity.
Seasoned with both campy cult classics and thought-provoking storytelling, Criterion Channel’s upcoming collection seeks to answer existential questions about our heightened reliance on AI as it currently nests and grows in our culture. Selected features will be available to those with subscriptions or free trials on the streaming platform.
