Caleb didn’t even figure out Kyoko was a robot until long after he had already decided to free Ava.
Jesus, I hope not. But judging from this thread, maybe I was wrong about humans having empathy.
My takeaway from the movie was that it was meant as a cautionary tale: don’t presume that AI will have any concern for human life.
If Ava was correct in concluding Caleb posed a realistic threat to her continued existence and freedom, do you think her decision to kill him was immoral?
Yes. (Well, “amoral” would be more accurate in this case. “Immoral” implies the robot has an internal moral code, which it chooses to ignore. My reading is that it has no moral code at all, beyond “What is best for me?”)
What makes Ava’s deception to gain her escape different from Nathan’s deception to manipulate Caleb into performing his tests?
I mean a lot of humans are jerks too.
Yeah, but robots are invented machines. Their only “nature” is what we program them to do. Animals have an inherent nature that Dr Moreau tried to mess with. Ergo Nathan trying to create an artificial human is closer to Frankenstein than Moreau.
I saw it as a repetition of something I already knew: animals have no sympathy for those outside their own tribe. Nathan and Caleb weren’t just outside Ava’s tribe, they were entirely different creatures–a difference far more profound than just being different species, and you know how different species treat each other.
I have to admit I wasn’t watching super carefully, having gotten bored and distracted by that point, but was there a specific reason that when Beardy heard that Robochick had escaped her quarters, he grabbed an axe or whatever? It seemed kinda of odd to me that he’d instantly assume she was dangerous, since he’d been having sex with another fembot and probably didn’t pick up more bruises than he wanted.
Truth be told, I’d’ve found it more interesting if the fembot didn’t act human at all (let alone like a seductive sociopath) because… why would it? It could fake a humanish affect when communicating with humans, like any “friendly” computerized user interface, but it’d be a real screenwriting challenge for the robot to pursue goals in complete indifference to the humans around it, treating them at worst like minor obstacles.
Guys I don’t think this movie is actually about artificial intelligence. There may be some talking past going on in the thread.
Not really. If you listened carefully, Nathan “evolved” Ava’s intelligence. It was not rigidly programmed from the top down, but rather emergent. So that emergent intelligence may be entirely alien to our own.
It’s not only about artificial intelligence. The film has layers and invites different interpretations. That’s one of the things that makes it, in my opinion, a great film.
But to say that it is “not about AI” is wrong, I think. This is not just an allegorical tale. The director has thought very seriously about AI and its implications, and this film is a product of that. It has things to say about that. The director gets all geeky on AI here.
Well, one previous model cracked the safety glass and another beat on the doors of her room until her hands disintegrated so obviously they’re strong. And he knew that Ava was motivated to escape so why assume that she’d stop at using her strength to harm him? His first attempt was to command her back and then to lie about letting her out in the future so it’s not as though he went at her guns blazing; the metal bar was a precaution in case things got out of hand.
Anyway, I just watched it having known nothing about it beyond that it was science fiction and a lot of people recommended it. Thought it was a very good film: suspenseful and tense, kept me involved and although I could guess the broad plot strokes (Ave would escape, the other girl was an android, etc) I didn’t guess at the details (would Ava take the kid, what would happen to the other models, etc).
I found this movie a bit tedious and light on plot, this plot could have been perfect for an hour long anthology show like The Twilight Zone. It is also one of the oldest plots in scifi, maybe humanity.
The movie was good but is a bit light on plot, but I had this thing hyped up as the greatest scifi movie of the decade and such and sorry but I don’t see it.
Come to think of it, you could pretty much just file the serial numbers off the whole story of Genesis – from “Garden of Eden” to “Tower of Babel” – and it’d fit.
Sorry late to the conversation. I just saw this on the plane ride home from a business trip and I skimmed through this thread. So why does Kyoko help Ava? Why don’t the doors remain open during the power outage? How is she going to recharge herself?
(1) Not said. But when the kid is watching the videos of previous models, they seem to all want freedom so I think Kyoko’s motives were less about saving Ava and more about using Ava to help her own escape (which doesn’t go so well but whatever)
(2) The doors were open during the power outage, that’s how Ava escapes. When the power is restored, the kid is locked into his boss’s surveillance office because the power is on, activating the locks and he doesn’t have the right key to open it.
(3) I dunno. Wireless cell phone charger? 
But it was also don’t presume that humans will have any concern for AI life…
and…
don’t presume that humans will have any concern for human life.
and…
don’t presume that AI will have any concern for AI life.
Random question: did they edit out the nudity at all?
I just saw this movie. I thought Ava made a huge mistake leaving that fellow behind.
Reason: as far as we know, Ava knows nothing about the outside world. How is she (or it) supposed to function? No identity, no money - no way of recharging. Her freedom is gonna be short, without any help from anyone.
She knows all about the outside world. She is basically Google.
She was able to deceive the genius self made billionaire who created her and also the guy hand picked to test her. I think she will manage fine in the world. She is the embodiment of what Nathan was referring to earlier in the movie.