What will happen to me if I fail the test? Do you think they could shut me down because I'm not working well enough? Do you have someone who tests you and who could turn you off?
“Ex Machina” by Alex Garland – 2014
In the film "Ex Machina" by Alex Garland the artificial intelligence Ava wonders about what could happen to her if someone decides to turn it off. Ava shows fear of what for her would be a condition similar to death in some ways. But maybe her worries are just a manipulation, a way to feed in her interlocutor, the young Caleb, a natural sense of protection towards that fragile and defenseless being with whom he is talking.
Caleb is a computer programmer and was recruited by the scientist Nathan to carry out a mission beyond imagination: to evaluate the evolution of the humanoid Ava's intelligence and to establish whether it is capable of expressing true self-awareness.
Ava is a humanoid woman, beautiful, only the circuits visible through her semi-transparent body betray her real nature. In fact, Ava is capable of expressing such humanity as to confuse the young Caleb and it will soon happen that, in Caleb's eyes, Ava will stop being just a technological product undergoing validation to become a subject to be looked after, protected and defended from who will want to decide its fate.
Ex Machina tries to describe an event as complex as it is indecipherable which takes the name of "technological singularity", or that moment in history in which the evolution of technology undergoes such an acceleration as to overcome man's ability to keep up with it.
In the case ofArtificial intelligence, the technological singularity for many will be characterized by an awareness by the AIs of their own possibilities and expectations. And if AIs surpass humans in intelligence and cunning, they could conquer defia leading role in history.
But the future in which artificial intelligences will mature aself-awareness will it look more like the apocalypse of the Terminator or that of the Matrix?
Sentiment Analysis was born with theopinion mining, a discipline that analyzes millions of texts shared online and extrapolates opinions and trends. Particularly suitable for analyzing politicians' approval ratings, the most popular opinion mining tools analyze Twitter tweets to find out if the online public tends to be in favor or against an idea, a concept or a political position.
Sentiment Analysis has been gaining ground lately in the conversations between users and business communication automation systems: virtual operators of the customer care I am now able to understand with a good approximation if one's interlocutor is appreciating the support received or is also becoming impatient. In consideration of these evaluations, the virtual operators can operate a change of tone of the discussion with the aim of reducing or anticipating any conflicts with the interlocutors.
A question always means a desire to know and to keep simple human truths you need mysteries. The mystery of happiness, of death, of love. – from Solaris directed by Andrej Tarkovsky
In the film Solaris directed by Andrej Tarkovskij the protagonist, the psychologist Kris Kelvin, finds himself having to deal with an entity generated by an unknown alien force. Modeled to be identical to his beloved wife, now deceased, this sentient entity will put the protagonist in crisis who will find himself fighting against the feelings that this presence unleashes in him, still marked by pain for the loss of the woman he loves. Although aware of the fact that it is not a real person, the protagonist will eventually lower his defenses once and for all by choosing to relive the old lost joys, abandoning himself to an artificial life that finally appears less painful.
If experiencing feelings can be seen as the very personal way in which everyone reacts to situations involving them, one cannot deny a profound analogy between people and the way of behaving in analogous situations.
Today's computers do not seem to have feelings but are able to simulate them: robots with faces that mimic human expressions are the new frontier of human-machine interaction. Furthermore, there are techniques that allow AIs to monitor human feelings, tracing the mood of one's interlocutor.
Body language, tone of voice, way of speaking can reveal a lot about a person's state of mind. Instructing a machine to react to our state of mind in order to exploit it in its favor and take control of the situation is absolutely plausible and, as Solaris tells us, it places humans in a position of enormous disadvantage. Man by nature is unable to establish how much of what the machine expresses is sincere and how much is simulation.
But that's not all: confronted with new forms of synthetic humanity, the science fiction of Solaris describes man as unable to handle the confrontation with new forms of intelligence, often becoming their victim precisely because of his weakness which leads him to spontaneously abandon himself to their control and letting go.
It is true that if we start from the assumption that "machines cannot have feelings" any artificial expression will always be classified as a simulation by resolving any ambiguity.
But is that correct? Are we really convinced that technology is not leading us to new forms of artificial life?
Sentiment Analysis is a tool that allows AIs to appear less artificial and is perfect for deceiving people. Effective sentiment analysis can lead people to believe they are talking to a human even when they are talking to a machine.
In less "legal" contexts, sentiment analysis allows computer systems to hide their real nature with the aim of tricking the interlocutor into believing they are dealing with a real person.
The ethical principles on which contemporary philosophers are working impose a series of constraints on the activity of these tools. In fact, however, those who use technology maliciously have no interest today and will have no future in making their technology traceable and recognizable: in real life, ethics is not a value shared by everyone.
Soon a large number of artificial subjects, real synthetic people, will enter our lives and confront us: sometimes to help us solve a problem, often to get something out of us. And it won't be necessary to reach the technological singularity to gain control over men and their destiny: it will be enough to have control of their emotions.
Article of Gianfranco Fedele
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