GHOST IN THE MACHINE
Director: Valerie Veatch
Certificate: 12a
☆☆☆☆☆

THIS whip-crack smart, informative and often pretty funny documentary is a great starter pack for possibly the biggest ethical question of our age – the rise and use of artificial intelligence.

Director Valerie Veatch is a film maker who is fascinated by the intersection between humans and technology. Her previous works included a film about a couple who were addicted to online gaming, and whose child died of neglect.

In Ghost In The Machine, we are given a cleverly worked, potted history of the rise of the computer age, and how creating smarter and smarter computer systems impacts on our lives.

Shockingly, she reveals how those AI pioneers were rooted in racist eugenic theories, and asks what dangers does it conjure up, and can it cure human ailments? And what ailments do we actually need curing – just medical ones, or are we seeking to enhance humans in other ways, and considers the profound questions this raises?

Veatch draws on a brilliant range of sources, ranging from a Victorian eugenicist to AI pioneer Sam Altman and of course the world’s Bond baddy, Elon Musk.

These are the questions of our time – what AI actually really means, how much control do we have of it, what can it be used for, and what the dangers are. Making such meaty topics digestible in the entertaining form of a film is not easy, and the risk Veatch faces is making this a polemic lecture for computer science students. Instead, this is a clever distillation of a vital conversation we need to be having.

Frightening, informative, Veatch even has a logo in the corner of each frame telling the viewer whether what they are watching is AI or otherwise.

Thankfully, humans are pretty good at adapting things to fit the need – and a firm called empathy.ai is possibly leading the way to an AI system that can be used in a positive manner. First, its European-based data centre is powered by solar – a crucial element as these data centres are energy hungry.

Second, it does not draw information from Silicon Valley servers: instead, it draws its information only from the data the user has inputted. This offers a failsafe check – you are able to trust the AI as it is only drawing on work you have given it access to.

Let’s hope our attempt to build a computer-god is moulded for the good of all. After watching Veatch’s film, don’t bet on it.