AI in Film – Future View
AI in the film is perhaps one of its most complex and significant milestones. Since its inception it has gone through many changes and advancements. It wasn’t until after seventeen years that being became truly popular representation. In 1968, Stanley Kubrick brought the world to know of HAL 9000, the first ever fully autonomous, self-contained AI machine.
Since that time HAL has had several different depictions. Though not directly foreshadowed, the first film to portray the AIs in a major motion picture was AI in the novel I, Robot. The novel’s protagonist, a robot who must navigate the complicated surroundings of a robotic system, learns basic language communication. It is here where the idea of artificially intelligent machines came about and was born the artificial intelligence film genre.
Though AIs in film industry started with the novel I, Robot, other such sci-fi masterpieces have come before and after. Two of these movies that had major AI influence were A.I. The Island of Doctor Who and Ghost in the Shell. Both of these films featured AIs that were completely computerized and played a significant role in the success of the film industry. Though not as profound as the works of science fiction writers such as Arthur C Clarke and Jules Verne, AIs in film industry still managed to influence box office.
Another landmark film which featured a self-contained artificial intelligence was Blade Runner. The first installment of the film showed how the advancement of technology could be threatened by human violence. As a result an AI scientist was project was secretly created to battle humans and prevent any collateral damage to humans. The character of Rachael Leigh Cook played by Joanne Froggatt was one such AIs that played a major part in the downfall of the applicant society. In the first part of the movie she was played by Kaya Scodelario and in the second part Yul Brynner replaced her. Though both were talented AIs they were not that different from each other and their contribution to the overall success of the film industry cannot be ignored.
VFX is an area of visual effects that were left out of the original sci-fi movies due to the complexity involved in making such effects. But due to the popularity of Star Wars the use of VFX became common place in all future science fiction films. Though Star Wars is an exception rather than the rule AIs in cinema are now appearing in every film made by Hollywood. And the look of the future lies in these artificially intelligent machines.
One of the most recent and popular films featuring AIs is Westworld. The film, which was directed by Steven Spielberg was based on the book written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The story centers around a man who awakens an android like robot in order to help him save his daughter from the clutches. The robot is programmed with complex AI software that allows it to understand human speech and think on its own, something that makes it seem like an artificial intelligence.
Though the robot seems to have a human-like intelligence, but according to researchers there is no way it could say or do anything beyond what it has been taught. The creation of Westworld did not happen overnight and it took almost 10 years to fully integrate the artificial intelligence into the software of the robot. The creation of the Westworld AIs is actually the brainchild of artificial intelligence researchers led by John Carroll.
John Carroll was a pioneer in using artificial intelligence in computers and was responsible for developing the language of the World Wide Web. Now with the help of the internet and its growing popularity people are using it for different purposes like social networking and buying and selling things over the internet. It’s now possible for a user to purchase a product over the internet and have it shipped to their house, all this is possible thanks to artificial intelligence and the research done by John Carroll and others. In the future we will see many more such breakthroughs in AI in film and entertainment, and perhaps even more intelligent machines in our clothing. The creation of artificial intelligence in films is definitely going to change the way we live and work tomorrow.
