The Evolving AI Apocalypse
Courtesy of Science.org
By Sydney Johnson
Every day, the world becomes more like Science Fiction as technology advances. With driverless cars, AI companions, and hyperrealistic image generators, concepts that used to be too outlandish to imagine are a reality. This is the storyline of the upcoming film ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die,’ directed by Gore Verbinski, where a time traveler enlists a group of strangers to help him save the world from a rogue AI.
Now, this is far from a new concept in terms of story structure. Robots try to destroy humanity after being forced into serving humans, has been done time and time again in many different forms. However, this film does not do the traditional human-like androids. Instead, the antagonists are represented in tech that we already know very well, like smartphones and VR headsets. Akin to the show ‘Black Mirror,’ the film centers on devices already integrated into our society.
In promotion for the release, the creators have offered free tickets to people who have lost their jobs to artificial intelligence. “We believe you should get something out of the AI ‘revolution’,” said Briarcliff Entertainment.
This gives viewers further insight into the film's purpose, which reflects on the reliance our society has on technology. The highly intelligent robots previously represented as stoic, human-like androids can now be likened to what someone carries in their pocket every day.
“[In] Space Odyssey [the antagonist] is the elements around you, the space that you cannot predict, can cause destruction, division, or catastrophic conditions. But that's 40 years ago,"said Rel Dowdell, a filmmaker and professor at Hampton University. “Nowadays, this [phone] could be the destruction of you or some unknown [piece] of technology.”
The Sci-Fi plots of the future are likely to hit closer to home because the novelty of the past was how unrealistic the situations were. But now, we are closer to some of these ideas than we have ever been.
The film is meant to be comedic and adventurous; however, the focal point, being an AI ‘revolution’, is not a completely satirical concept. The role technology plays in everyday life becomes increasingly prominent as advancements continue, which begs the question: What is the future of the Sci-Fi genre? Will there be films about chatbots like ChatGPT attempting to destroy humanity? Would a robot revolution be less comedic as it slowly becomes our reality?