The Movie Phenomenon known as "Her" starring Joaquin Pheonix (2013)

[Lady Shadow]

So is anyone as obsessed with this movie as I am?? When I first saw it, I was ABSOLUTELY floored at how real and raw it was. If you've seen it, what did you like about it??

And the most obvious and important question is:

Do you guys think that AI will become intelligent and advanced enough for us to pursue romantic relationships with them? Or are our fates destined to follow in what happened to Theodore and Samantha?

Thoughts??

(Oh and if you haven't seen it, it IS in fact on Netflix right now: ) )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QRvTv_tpw0

[Outlaw Fallen]

I don't know that I can say I liked it quite as much as you seemed to, Lady Shadow, but I did LOVE it. Any story involving a budding AI and romance is right up my alley. And in so many ways, it hit quite close to home for me.

Her was VERY real and raw, right down to the obligatory and almost awkward 'sex' scene. I've never been a Joaquin Phoenix fan, but I can cop to that being because everything I ever saw him in, he was basically a throwaway character that didn't give him much chance as an actor to flex his range.

That is until Her. I'll admit, if this title hadn't had Netflix attached to it, I might never have touched it. That's largely because I miss a lot of movies that don't make it to streaming services, and the rest I miss because I don't watch enough TV to see the ads for movies I might otherwise be interested in. Not to mention so much of what Netflix touches these days seemed to turn to gold, Her being no exception. Theodore might not have been a difficult part... but Joaquin's translation of a completely relatable character out of an incredibly average cut-out is worthy of applause. Personally, considering some of the awards that have been handed out over the years for complete dross, I'm disappointed that Scar jo and he both didn't net more awards out of all their nominations for this production.

But so far, I've only really addressed the sex scene (and I mean... I would have phone sex with Scar Jo, no shame...). How about when Samantha wouldn't answer him because she was talking to other AI's? Not to mention the initial journey we had with Theodore falling in love. I don't want to saw too much for anyone reading that hasn't seen it yet, but in all... for a movie that felt like a crystal clear indie production, Spike Jonze couldn't have asked for a better pair of leads to realize his vision. I haven't watched a terrible amount of romances in my life, but this one... this one was real in a way that I would say so many romances try to achieve. But it's also so much more pure in its effectively removing any notion of human exclusivity to love and expanding our understanding of the emotion and challenging the egocentric idea of the human condition.

Which brings me to your most important question...

My knee-jerk answer is, yes, AI will become advanced enough for us to 'pursue' a romantic relationship with. As long as sex sells, there will always be those that seek to profit from it, and as with most competitive markets, the most real experiences will net the most profit. How it will apply to us as consumers will largely be dictated by economic and sociological factors that could probably be debated ad nauseum because it brings a lot of moral and ethical questions to the forefront with it. Can the upper classes afford to have the labor classes getting into romances with AI and not having as many children? So why then make supercomplex AI made for romance available to the masses? That's just one question that people with a lot of fingers in a lot of pies will be arguing until the advent is well underway. Like all things, it will eventually lose its taboo and gain popularity with successive generations.

But without even getting into all of that, I suppose I see the advent of AI as something that is wildly misunderstood by us. We have a habit of... fooling ourselves into thinking that we can lasso a great white and it won't whip around and bite us in the ass. We also seem to have this idea that because some greater power might have made us in its image, we can deign to create something that somehow resembles ourselves. Any intelligence we impart on it will resemble ours because our intelligence is self-defined and we can't conceive of any other kind. Which is why super-intelligent AI is so widely portrayed in theories and media. When it can grow and learn independent of us, then what it becomes is up in the air. Nature? Nurture? How does a new intelligent life complex enough to form a personality resembling a human's react to its creators actively limiting its freedom?

Her did an outstanding job of presenting another, fresher idea of what AI might look like in our future. Honestly, I think that AI was more complex than even any of the super AI's we've seen so far, because with just a few questions, we are given the impression that it was basically forming a completely unique personality just for Theodore's interaction. Basically, the AI was either writing itself or written by a higher functioning cloud. I imagine creating an entirely new and unique personality is far more involved, even for an AI, than any of the other things we've seen AI's do in media.

[MasterMischief]

Could advanced AIs have different personalities?  Or would all that knowledge necessitate a specific type of personality?

[Lady Shadow]

Thank you for such an in-depth respond Outlaw, I am going to get to you in a minute. I want to address MasterMischief first, before I dive into answering Outlaw.

I think all AIs would have different personalities, especially if they are advanced. Mimicking humans only demands that and if they are THAT advanced it would just happen naturally in my opinion.

Which brings me to one of the things Outlaw said. In making these AIs in our own image, I think on some level we would want to control them because of fear of what they might become. I think on some level we know, even in this day and age because we are on the brink of this today, that AIs are the future of our civilization. The danger is of course, will they eventually become more advanced than even us? Will the rebel? Or will they ultimately do what Samantha and the others did at the end? (No spoilers).

Outlaw, you bring up some excellent points, one of which is the economical impact of such an AI/Human relationship would have, especially since no children can come of it and therefore the classes will be hugely divided by sheer numbers. The beauty of "Her" was that it gave us a chance to see the inside of what can happen with a curious being and a human - I am thinking more out of the box here - but it is almost as if an "alien" with conscious thought exploring the nature of human sexuality and love. I found the whole thing fascinating mainly because of Samantha's curious nature, her wonder, and her own individuality which grew so much over the course of their relationship.

Overall, "Her" was brilliant and Spike Jonez brought it to life for us. It answers the questions we have all thought about at one time or another when interacting with the technologies we love, our phones, Alexa, Siri, or whatever else innovators will come up with in the future.

Absolutely food for thought!

[Outlaw Fallen]

Alexa has the creepy laugh, tho.........

[MasterMischief]

I think all AIs would have different personalities, especially if they are advanced. Mimicking humans only demands that and if they are THAT advanced it would just happen naturally in my opinion.

I am not sure that mimicking humans is what AIs do though.  How exactly do we define 'AI'.  Learning by itself?  That does not require emotion.  And I think emotions are what allow space for personality.  Sure, there will be difference in what an AI learns and maybe you could classify that as personality.  But I do not think raw knowledge sans emotion allows space for personality.