Smoke Signals

While trying to write a paper about the ethical dilemmas of artificial intelligence (AI), I thought I would look up some fiction or movies for reference. As I searched through Netflix, I found a recently-released movie Atlas, and spent two hours watching it.

The title of the movie comes from the name of the main character, Atlas Shepherd. She is a brilliant data analyst, living in a world full of advanced technology and AIs. Atlas, however, hates -or deeply mistrusts- AIs.

Atlas devoted most of her career analyzing and studying this one AI -Harlan Shepherd- that her mother made several years ago. Her mother was just as smart as Atlas and believed that neural links between humans and AIs will provide better ways for humans to survive on this planet. One day, however, Harlan was able to use the neural links against humans and invalidate programs in other AIs to attack humans.

At the beginning of the movie, the news delivers that Harlan has already escaped to another planet and left a message that he will come back to finish what he had started. Meanwhile, the agents successfully capture Casca Decius, an infamous AI terrorist, and Atlas interrogates the AI to find out Harlan’s base camp.

After her successful interrogation, Atlas and several other professional agents go on a mission to capture Harlan and bring him back to Earth. However, while the team tries to land, their spaceship gets attacked by Harlan’s armies, and Atlas becomes the sole survivor on the team.

Atlas searches the planet with her own arc, a huge robot built for fights with the agent riding it. For better use of the robot, Atlas must synchronize with it. However, despite plenty of attacks and dangers, Atlas stubbornly refuses to accept the neural link.

Over the movie, Atlas becomes familiar with her arc and decides to find out Harlan’s base. Atlas eventually discovers the base, but then she finds out that Harlan was trying to send a nuclear missile to Earth to exterminate humans and build a new world with AIs as its leading force. As soon as she realizes their plan, her arc gets attacked and she is captured by Harlan.

Atlas, finally, realizes that she must synchronize with her arc and allows it to read her mind and thoughts. During the process, the arc gets exposed to her past and understands her fear and guilt. Eventually, at the end, Atlas successfully kills Harlan and saves humans from their demise.

At the beginning, it was not difficult to see how much Atlas distrusted and hated artificial intelligence. When she saw other agents dead due to Harlan’s armies, Atlas immediately cried and showed deep emotional disturbance. However, during the moments when her arc suggested neural links, Atlas was adamant and warned the arc not to slip into her memories and read her thoughts.

The part where Atlas and her arc -Smith- had a conversation about whether artificial intelligence was alive was interesting. Atlas argued that artificial intelligence is not alive and it is just a programmed machine. Smith, however, argued that the definition of a living creature can differ by who determines it and what standards they abide by.

It was also impressive to see how Atlas’s attitude towards artificial intelligence changed throughout the movie. While she detested AIs at first, she became able to trust and joke with them at the end. When Smith, her arc, died eventually due to Harlan’s attack and lack of power, Atlas cried and showed signs of deep emotional disturbance. At the end of the movie, Atlas asks one of the technicians to build an arc exactly like Smith and goes for a ride with a happy smile on her lip.

As people focus more and more attention on development of technology and artificial intelligence, there are more and more ethical dilemmas arising regarding them. People easily say artificial intelligence is not alive. It is only programmed to say certain things. It cannot feel and does not have a soul. However, while watching the movie, I thought we might someday have to come up with a new definition of soul and consciousness if we are to coexist with artificial intelligence. They are of course pre-programmed for all of their interactions and responses, but there might come one day when our definition of consciousness and life will not be enough to be applied for highly developed technology.