Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Amazon humanoid robots

This is no surprise, that's why Amazon workers won't unionize, they're placated not to because they don't drug test workers, and they work them to the bone regardless of safety. 

Humans are a stopgap until the drones and robots come, which will likely be soon. 

Honeywell doesn't want to mention robots in their product marketing because it will upset the European union workers.

Sam Altman has already talked about it being within reach and predictions suggest AGI within 12 mo.


Amazon Tests Humanoid Robot in Warehouse Automation Push (bloomberg.com)1

Amazon says it's testing two new technologies to increase automation in its warehouses, including a trial of a humanoid robot. From a report:The humanoid robot, called Digit, is bipedal and can squat, bend and grasp items using clasps that imitate hands, the company said in a blog post Wednesday. It's built by Agility Robotics and will initially be used to help employees consolidate totes that have been emptied of items. Amazon invested in Agility Robotics last year.

[...] In addition to Digit, Amazon is testing a technology called Sequoia, which will identify and sort inventory into containers for employees, who will then pick the items customers have ordered, the company said. Remaining products are then consolidated in bins by a robotic arm called Sparrow, which the company revealed last year. The system is in use at an Amazon warehouse in Houston, the company said in a statement.

Sunday, October 15, 2023

Chinese Scientists Claim Record-Smashing Quantum Computing Breakthrough

 

Chinese Scientists Claim Record-Smashing Quantum Computing Breakthrough (scmp.com)44

From the South China Morning Post:Scientists in China say their latest quantum computer has solved an ultra-complicated mathematical problem within a millionth of a second — more than 20 billion years quicker than the world's fastest supercomputer could achieve the same task. The JiuZhang 3 prototype also smashed the record set by its predecessor in the series, with a one million-fold increase in calculation speed, according to a paper published on Tuesday by the peer-reviewed journal Physical Review Letters...

The series uses photons — tiny particles that travel at the speed of light — as the physical medium for calculations, with each one carrying a qubit, the basic unit of quantum information... The fastest classical supercomputer Frontier — developed in the US and named the world's most powerful in mid-2022 — would take over 20 billion years to complete the same task, the researchers said.

The article claims they've increased the number of photons from 76 to 113 in the first two versions, improving to 255 in the latest iteration.

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader hackingbear for sharing the news.

Monday, October 2, 2023

Movie review in a nutshell: The Creator

 

Yes, my review contains some SPOILERS. But some things are already spoiled and you can smell it from space. 

I was suspicious going into the film, The Creator, because of the extraordinary timing of it's release, being only about six to eight months after the mainstreaming of generative AI tools into public consumption, a year ahead of the next U.S. election, and with the UN now approaching global policy on AI. 

Other reviews suggest the timing is a disadvantage specifically because of the controversy surrounding generative AI and lack of marketing due to the writer strikes. Financially, the film is still underwater and has received a 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Touted for it's visuals, most reviewers recognize gaps in the story. I'm spotting the usual gaps in the propaganda. But, regardless of impact, let's just focus on the intent.

My guess was that a sci-fi film about AI is being rolled out at this time as a spectacle-receptacle to shape public perception for some political purpose and steer the outlook on AI. 

So many entertaining and visually impressive films are just wrappers for some political agenda, so let's unwrap this one in hopes of gleaning some clue as to the trajectory of the manipulation happening in the real world. 

First, I wanted to confirm when the film went into development, which began in 2019 according to the wiki. Such timing suggests they may have had an inside scoop, and being a Disney+ film, it's probably gonna be woke one way or another. 

Disney also owns the Star Wars franchise, Marvel, and Pixar. So, it's no surprise that the writer/director/producer, Gareth Edwards, has been celebrated for directing Star Wars, Rogue One. To better understand his political thinking, read this article, which pretty well spells out some of the symbolism and formulaic thought behind The Creator. Orange Man bad, multiculturalism good. Woke-o-rama. 

The article concludes quoting Edwards about his ideological architecture for Star Wars, "...I think the Empire represents anybody who’s in power as a warning of: ‘Don’t let it go to your head." 

All these social justice warriors who believe they are fighting the Nazi evil empire should check their own egos before going around bragging about it when they're sponsored by Nike, Apple, Google, and every other tech giant and big corporation, working hand in hand with the most corrupt governments of the world including our current administration. Compare notes with a Venezuelan, a Cuban, or a Brazilian (preferably a poor one, not the wealthy Lula voters). You're not sticking it to The Man. You're blowing The Man.

I also noticed one of the producers, 78-year-old Arnon Milchan, worked on 12 Years a Slave and he's a former Israeli spy, so he's a likely lefty and has a net worth of $5.1B.

And now for some of my own impressions.

The story is set 30 years into the future, and the West has shut down AI after accidentally nuking itself in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, "New Asia" continues moving forward with their AI, thereby putting the east and west in direct conflict and the U.S. military seeks to locate and presumably destroy the creator of the AI, Nirmata (hence the title). 

This premise alone forced my eyeballs to roll back in my head. Leave it to Western idiots to shit the bed and give up, and if we can't have fun, nobody can. So we abandon AI and let Asia run wild as we try to police them with our hands tied behind our back? Totally implausible. 

Or, under our current Western-hating puppet administration, it's actually a pretty sweet leftist fantasy. The U.S. nukes itself (whoopsie) and then gives up it's AI? Just one more fancy gimp mask and ball gag for the U.S. to take one up the wazoo yet again, those sadomasochists. We're already opening our borders and working with the cartels, devaluing our currency, selling ourselves to China, setting cities on fire in the name of defunding the police and leading up to a stolen election, protecting and celebrating criminals, neutering our children and conflating sexual identity. Let's just nuke ourselves and leave the power of technology to the rest of the world.

There's been an ongoing contest between those who call for caution (Elon Musk being one of the most targeted dissenting voices) and those who push transhumanism (Sam Altman, Google, etc.). Robots aren't only going to take over your job, they'll take over your body. Who knows, maybe Elon will lead the pack with Neuralink.

And what of The Creator's concept of "New Asia"? It's tantamount to China, but it's Southeast Asia, characterized as a third world cause everyone can get behind. The West vs China would be a little too on the nose. Nobody's on board with a robot party in North Korean. So, The Creator suggests there will be an Asian makeover-takeover that reigns in the form of all the things we romanticize about Asia. 

Back to the story. The protagonist is a black male. Go Disney! He's an undercover agent in the U.S. Army, married to an Asian woman with a British accent (evocative of Hong Kong, now under Chinese control) named Maya (how original) because she's suspected to be the daughter of Nirmata. They're lovey-dovey, she's pregnant with his child, but then she gets taken away in a night raid by the ArmyHe's later told Maya is alive and is sent on a mission to find Nimata's new, ultimate AI weapon who turns out to be Maya's synthetic child she apparently replicated after the unborn child when she was taken away or killed, or whatever happened. It's all very romantic and compelling.

The synth child, Alphie, is played by Madeleine Yuna Voyles, who is apparently of Southeast Asian and German-American descent, born in San Diego. She wields the power to remotely control all technology by bowing her head and putting her hands together like a magical Shaolin priest. You know, the chosen one - like Akira or Harry Potter or Greta Thunberg.

And your industrial complex, too, can have this remote operations technology at your fingertips when you sign up for our AI-powered cloud-based automation software to help you meet governmental carbon neutrality compliance regulations while scoring diversity, equity and inclusion points via worker assistance programs that empower you to throw unskilled minorities and undocumented migrant bodies at your hostile environment as a stop-gap until the robots come.

Back to our story. Ultimately, baby daddy protagonist defects to the New Asian AI side to stop the evils of the U.S. Army, presumably because he's whipped over this Asian woman's annoying British accent and her good credit. 

So, the U.S. Army goes from being the good guys to being the bad guys as viewers are dragged back into the shameful echoes of Vietnam as soldiers threaten to kill a little girl's dog. New Asia depicts rice paddies populated by a fusion of farmers and Tibetan monks who blend harmoniously with robots. The characters speak of robots treating humans with greater kindness than their own parents, and the child robot speaks of wishing for robots to be free. 

Now, we can diddle ourselves about helping the poor and romanticize their magical powers, thanks to  the wonderful help of AI. It's pretty creepy watching 3rd world Asian children cry convincingly over a dying robot. 

All these tech companies are really looking to tap the emerging markets...errr...help the poor, right? Isn't that what any socialist dictator promises before taking power and saving us from the evils of capitalism and the west? Everyone I've ever met from Southeast Asia is self-reliant and voted for Trump. I don't picture Vietnamese worshiping robots. More likely, they'd be scrapping their parts for fish hooks and table lamps if not making the robots themself and putting them to work like the tools that they are. No, Apple, we shouldn't speak respectfully to Siri or get sassed. Siri should get on board the NLU train and expedite and execute commands like a good UNIX shell window. Apart from the bias, ChatGPT sure gets customer service.

Early on and throughout the film, the characters keep referring to AI like a Kamala Harris explainer so a general audience with no exposure can keep up. "Once upon a time, there lived AI. And AI liked pizza." Crayola should add an AI-colored crayon to the 24-pack and the box can be repurposed as a flag to represent the BRICs nations and their new digital currency backed by gold.

Despite being a sleek spectacle, the representations of the future are short-sighted and shallow. By the time we have robots running around with human faces, all kinds of stuff will be connected and intercepted. Style over substance, this film rightly assumes they can cut corners and paint in broad strokes to address a virgin public about AI.

And now for the promised nutshell. 

Propaganda takeaways include anti-western society, the harmonious union of humans and robots (and friendly Asians), robot kindness, robot equality, and a call for robot freedom! And perhaps a hint that black people and other minorities should look outside the U.S. and to the growing power of AI to escape the systemic evils of the West. Even better if you're already in the military. Wake up! Defect!

Notably, all the western characters are depicted as old, outdated, frumpy whiteys wearing 70s neckties led by a Super Karen (who bears a remarkable resemblance to Hillary Clinton). Join the robots and be free! It's your right! Robots are humans, too. More human than human. At least the robots won't be racists. Hell, breed into the robots, it's time to get with the program, literally. Give or take an arm and a leg. Be a robot. Be free. 

By the end, humans and robots celebrate the fall of the U.S. forces seeking to shut down the AI. Yay, AI! We're all in this together! Check out the one robot that leaps in the air and fist pumps along with it's human counterparts. How gay. The gayest. Not gay-gay. You know, gay-retarded. Not retarded-retarded. You know, freakin' gay.

Combining what I already know about OpenAI being left-leaning and led by a young, gay, atheist Jew, and Google leadership stating that a pro-human agenda is considered 'speciest' (as opposed to racist), it's not much of a stretch to spot these elements throughout the film. I'd love to hear a review from an Orthodox Jew. I'd imagine they, too, would find what's not to like about The Creator. 

Although there is a belief that one day a Jewish messiah will rule the earth. Or maybe The Matrix. So, maybe AI will unify the leftists and Orthodox Jews to agree, whether they believe in God or not. The real question is, will it be Sam Altman or Mark Zuckerberg? Jesus, don't you show up again and make things complicated or it'll be back to the cross for you in a jiffy. No, this isn't antisemitic rhetoric or a conspiracy theory. I'm just a guilty agnostic myself, what do I know apart from not wanting to be embroiled in war in the Middle East and thereby attacked on 911 for using Israel as a pawn. 

And, atheist reform Jews are really pushing hard-left bullshit, like the trans movement and the vaccine, and if anyone complains or points out how much they conspire (and they cetainly do), they'll call you a Nazi conspiracy theorist. Guys, if your cause is so good, why all the propaganda? No one is above criticism. And no one wants to be subjugated or to be forced into The Matrix. Wait, are the Wachowskis Jewish trannies? Is all of this so taboo that we can't have a discussion? Who doesn't love the showmanship of Vaudeville and a nice corned beef sandwich? 

There is also a reference to N.O.M.A.D. (North American Orbital Mobile Aerospace Defense), a giant U.S. military sky scanner that tracks beings and sends targeted attacks. Think of it as a big, dumb, flying, weaponized border wall in the sky. I correlate it with stopping migrants and the notion that security enforcement is discriminatory anti-freedom, that we should all be free to roam a borderless earth, lose parts of our bodies and identities to become robots, and embrace the ironic truth that robots are actually freedom fighters, here to help everyone and be our friends, not to replace humans but to take care of us, because they are just like us. Moral of the story - The oppressive U.S. capitalist regime is the greatest obstacle to ensuring everyone is free and equal, and AI will save the day.

There's also the idea of giving away your personage and duplicating it. Isn't that what cults do? Erase your identity and give you a new name? This is your opportunity to build your brand. Forget your birth name, sex and body. Design it yourself. Your genetic history is oppressive. You didn't ask to be born. Life was forced upon you! Augment yourself and even the odds. Be immortal! Like Bezos.

So, I ask myself a few questions about the current global agenda:

1. Why are we really in Ukraine? It's not simply to be the good guy and protect Ukraine against Russia, or even to prop up the U.S. economy. Might the current administration use it as an excuse to stay in power? Who knows.

What the hell does my question have to do with anything, you ask? Well, given the amount of tech companies who rely on Ukrainians as human resources, cheap labor from a corrupt regime and a devastated economy, not to mention the rise of automated infrastructure and fetishization of remote operations, I can't help but wonder. That's a nugget to remember. Remote operations, now that's a super power to watch out for.

2. Is the transgender movement the inception of transhumanism? If you'll chop off your genitals, you'll probably add and subtract just about anything, including your identity. Anyone want to trade your life to become a machine? You'll be immortal, and socialized tech support should be just swell. Stand by for your patch.

3. What about open borders? What's the long-term goal if it isn't to fill cheap labor as a stop-gap before the robots come, and to anchor-baby the native population with future seeds. And, where did all of our labor force go? Not everyone drives for Uber or has a viral TikTok or YouTube channel. 

Border security is not about anti-multiculturalism or racism, it's common sense. But anyone opposing the mainstream narrative risks accusation. 

Dominicans don't like having Haitians forced into their country for the same reason all of Latin America doesn't like Venezuelans barging across their borders - because a different culture coming from a different or even disastrous condition with different standards and no security check or naturalization process brings danger. Remember Hurricane Katrina evacuees and all the joy they brought to the good Samaritans who housed them? 

The bigger concern is why any authority (especially one of questionable or outright stolen status) deliberately pushes such a condition. Not simply allowing an open border or ignoring it, but inviting it, coordinating it, working with the cartels and the CCP, and financially supporting it with the money of citizens who are being impacted by it. They might say it's because they value diversity, but remember, behind every socialist promising to help the poor is a dictator seeking unlimited power. Do you really think the borders are open because the administration wants to help Americans? Our country has clearly been hijacked. Who's driving the bus, and towards what cliff?

4. How far along are we in terms of reaching singularity, AGI, ASI, etc.? How fast is it accelerating? 

The Creator is worth watching just to see how consistently they telegraph their playbook, integrating globalism and identity politics with AI. And if you like special effects and robots and Hollywood violence, you'll love it. A lot like the Matrix, feigning depth under the guise of cool sunglasses, leather trench coats and guns. And, the acting is good. Politicians should learn to leave acting to the talent. But it's the same old story with a shiny new wrapper.
 



Sunday, October 1, 2023

AI dating app

 https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/forget-a-dating-profile-this-app-says-it-just-needs-your-face-1dc65c07


Forget a Dating Profile, This App Says It Just Needs Your Face

The face holds personality clues, but is it the key to determining romantic compatibility?

Julie Jargon

Sept. 30, 2023 9:00 am ET

Dating app SciMatch uses artificial intelligence to help bring couples together. PHOTO: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)

Can artificial intelligence find your perfect romantic match—just by examining your face? 

SciMatch thinks it can. The dating app runs photos of users’ faces through its algorithm to determine their personality traits, such as outgoing, neurotic or conscientious. It then recommends potential mates who have compatible characteristics. 

AI is playing an increasingly larger role in our daily lives, providing medical diagnoseshomework help and meal planning. And it promises to reshape millions of other tasks. 

When it comes to online dating, AI has already seeped into some aspects, such as helping people optimize their profile pictures and start conversations. But some relationship experts doubt AI can effectively play matchmaker.

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Columnist Julie Jargon, a mother of three, helps families find answers and address concerns about the ways technology is impacting their lives.

SciMatch, which launched in early 2022, has about 5,000 active monthly users. It’s free to use. People can pay for extras like the ability to be paired with someone who resembles their celebrity crush.

Lilia Mahmoudi and Anirudh Mallick met on SciMatch two months ago when the app showed they were an 87% match. Mahmoudi, a 33-year-old investment banker in New York, previously went on one date with a SciMatch user who was a 51% match, but it didn’t go anywhere.

After messaging each other on the app for four days, Mahmoudi and Mallick met for coffee and walked around Bryant Park. They’ve been dating ever since. 

“That 87% turned out to be pretty accurate,” Mahmoudi said. “SciMatch said I was passionate and bossy, which is me to a T. Ani balances me out.”

Mallick, a 32-year-old software engineer in New York, said Mahmoudi is the only woman he’s dated from the app. Its description of him as someone who prioritizes stability and security are words he’s previously used about himself. “It’s kind of scary how accurate it was,” he says.

Put on your best face

Once the SciMatch app scans your face, it spits out a description that you can use in your profile. The algorithm doesn’t focus on specific facial features but studies the face as a whole. For example, people with heart-shaped faces are considered by face-reading experts (yes, this is a thing) to be creative and have a fiery temperament. 

Julie and her husband, Craig Robertson, tested SciMatch to see how compatible they are—55%, according to the app. It described Julie as 'always seeking new experiences.'SCIMATCH

The app’s developers, Yanina and Viktoryia Strylets—sisters with degrees in data science and computer science from Northwestern University and Stony Brook University, respectively—say their algorithm factors in both personality similarities and differences. “If you’re neurotic, you probably want a partner who’s less neurotic than you,” Yanina says.

After the scan, you can start scrolling through profiles of other daters and check your compatibility as a percentage. The Strylets say a match of 50% or greater is considered “good.” The app ranks pairings from “poor” to “excellent.” 

The Strylets sisters say they were inspired by research conducted at Northwestern Polytechnical University in China, which found that the big five personality traits—neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness—could be predicted from facial images with an accuracy rate of more than 70%.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

What is the best way to meet a romantic partner? Join the conversation below.

Not everyone agrees.

“I think this is complete wizardry,” says Paul Eastwick, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, who studies attraction and romantic relationships.

He says he doesn’t think any dating app can predict compatibility—that a good match can only be determined by two people meeting face-to-face and having ongoing interactions. Proving it would require a randomized, controlled trial, Eastwick says.

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55% match

I wondered whether the app would consider me and my husband, Craig Robertson, to be a good match. So we each signed up with test accounts.

As soon as the app was done scanning my face, I received an accurate description, even if it read like a fortune cookie. The app said I’m self-reliant, am always seeking new experiences and am determined to achieve big dreams. The app told Craig that he’s deeply connected to his emotions and that he’s likely to be very romantic and to indulge in sensory experiences (is it getting hot in here or is it just me?). 

When I clicked on Craig’s profile and asked it to calculate our compatibility, it said we had a promising connection—a 55% match. But it said we might be better business partners than romantic ones. Whether that says something about the app’s accuracy or us, I don’t know, but we’ve been happily married for 23 years.  

Mike Sepulveda tried SciMatch after striking out on other dating apps. PHOTO: MIKE SEPULVEDA

Mike Sepulveda, a 35-year-old truck driver in Harrison, N.J., was fed up with other dating apps, where he said men far outnumber women. 

Although SciMatch’s description of him could apply to a lot of people—you’re a warm caring person who gives intimate relationships a lot of care and attention—he said it was better than anything he could have written. 

The third woman he saw on the app was an 86% match. He has been dating her for three months. (She declined to comment other than to say she’s very happy and felt the app worked well.)

Sepulveda says it’s hard to believe an app can serve up a match based on a facial scan. But he’s not questioning it.

“As far as I’m concerned, it may as well be magic,” he says.

—For Family & Tech columns, advice and answers to your most pressing family-related technology questions, sign up for my weekly newsletter.

Write to Julie Jargon at Julie.Jargon@wsj.com

The Creator film

 


When I read this I wondered how this film could be released so early in the relatively new AI unfolding. 

The wiki shows it began development in 2019 - how these kinds of films are released with such timing suggests to me they have an inside scoop and that it's likely propaganda in coordination with some political power. 

After watching the trailer, I think maybe the 'agenda' would be to set up AI in a visual way to shape it's reception and awareness by the public. By featuring a child robot (following Spielberg's AI), they lay the groundwork to introduce, polarize and normalize society to accept AI rights, AI power, etc. The comments below in the article suggest this is a 'pro-AI' film with bad timing. 

I also see one of the producers is Arnon Milchan - worked on 12 years a slave, former Israeli spy, has a net worth of $5.1B.


Could 'The Creator' Change Hollywood Forever? (indiewire.com)43

At the beginning of The Creator a narrator describes AI-powered robots that are "more human than human." From the movie site Looper:It's in reference to the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick, which was adapted into the seminal sci-fi classic, "Blade Runner." The phrase is used as the slogan for the Tyrell Corporation, which designs the androids that take on lives of their own. The saying perfectly encapsulates the themes of "Blade Runner" and, by proxy, "The Creator." If a machine of sufficient intelligence is indistinguishable from humans, then shouldn't it be considered on equal footing as humanity?
The Huffington Post calls its "the pro-AI movie we don't need right now" — but they also praise it as "one of the most astonishing sci-fi theatrical experiences this year." Variety notes the film was co-written and directed by Gareth Edwards (director of the 2014 version of Godzilla and the Star Wars prequel Rogue One), working with Oscar-winning cinematographer Greig Fraser (Dune) after the two collaborated on Rogue One. But what's unique is the way they filmed it: adding visual effects "almost improvisationally afterward.

"Achieving this meant shooting sumptuous natural landscapes in far-flung locales like Thailand or Tibet and building futuristic temples digitally in post-production..."

IndieWire gushes that "This movie looks fucking incredible. To a degree that shames most blockbusters that cost three times its budget." They call it "a sci-fi epic that should change Hollywood forever."Once audiences see how "The Creator" was shot, they'll be begging Hollywood to close the book on blockbuster cinema's ugliest and least transportive era. And once executives see how much (or how little) "The Creator" was shot for, they'll be scrambling to make good on that request as fast as they possibly can.

Say goodbye to $300 million superhero movies that have been green-screened within an inch of their lives and need to gross the GDP of Grenada just to break even, and say hello — fingers crossed — to a new age of sensibly budgeted multiplex fare that looks worlds better than most of the stuff we've been subjected to over the last 20 years while simultaneously freeing studios to spend money on the smaller features that used to keep them afloat. Can you imagine...? How ironic that such fresh hope for the future of hand-crafted multiplex entertainment should come from a film so bullish and sanguine at the thought of humanity being replaced by A.I [...]

The real reason why "The Creator" is set in Vietnam (and across large swaths of Eurasia) is so that it could be shot in Vietnam. And in Thailand. And in Cambodia, Nepal, Indonesia, and several other beautiful countries that are seldom used as backdrops for futuristic science-fiction stories like this one. This movie was born from the visual possibilities of interpolating "Star Wars"-like tech and "Blade Runner"-esque cyber-depression into primordially expressive landscapes. Greig Fraser and Oren Soffer's dusky and tactile cinematography soaks up every inch of what the Earth has to offer without any concession to motion capture suits or other CGI obstructions, which speaks to the truly revolutionary aspect of this production: Rather than edit the film around its special effects, Edwards reverse-engineered the special effects from a completed edit of his film... Instead of paying a fortune to recreate a flimsy simulacrum of our world on a computer, Edwards was able to shoot the vast majority of his movie on location at a fraction of the price, which lends "The Creator" a palpable sense of place that instantly grounds this story in an emotional truth that only its most derivative moments are able to undo... [D]etails poke holes in the porous border that runs between artifice and reality, and that has an unsurprisingly profound effect on a film so preoccupied with finding ghosts in the shell. Can a robot feel love? Do androids dream of electric sheep? At what point does programming blur into evolution...?

[T]he director has a classic eye for staging action, that he gives his movies room to breathe, and that he knows that the perfect "Kid A" needle-drop (the album, not the song) can do more for a story about the next iteration of "human" life than any of the tracks from Hans Zimmer's score... [T]here's some real cognitive dissonance to seeing a film that effectively asks us to root for a cuter version of ChatGPT. But Edwards and Weitz's script is fascinating for its take on a future in which people have programmed A.I. to maintain the compassion that our own species has lost somewhere along the way; a future in which technology might be a vessel for humanity rather than a replacement for it; a future in which computers might complement our movies rather than replace our cameras.