This is a look at the development of Artificial Intelligence (IA), its history, what it is capable of, and how it may affect us in the future. In the film we hear from experts in the field, academics, journalists and other interested parties who explain the advantages and fears about IA and where it is going.
AI, of course, feeds off data, and the more data there is the better it becomes at doing virtually anything humans can do. Therefore surveillance of human activity is a prerequisite for AI learning and progress. It is not at all clear though that deep surveillance of the kind needed is a good thing for the individual and their privacy.
The film shows how data analysis gave rise to the earliest and most primitive AI systems. How computers became better even at things thought to be hard to emulate, like chess, go, and poker. But are now tireless workers at the production line, and are displacing humans in office work. We also hear from a surgeon who only hands-on operates around once a year. The rest of the time he simply supervises a robot.
One of the interviewers suggests that AI is really the last human invention, because once we have AI it can start teaching itself, and all later true inventions will come from machines that can understand the problems better, and without the mental limitations humans have.
There is though a real question of ethics in many fields: if humans are not needed for work any more, what do they do with their lives? If machines can emulate human behaviour, and more reliably so, where will that lead us? If facial recognition and profiling can identify “enemies” how will the military use that power? These and many more questions are asked in this full length documentary.
