The Artificial Intelligence Monster: Nicola Bates

Christopher Booker in 2004 wrote of the seven basic plots to any story, one of these being ‘overcoming the monster’. Within Hollywood, such ‘monsters’ often reflects the zeitgeist balancing commercial requirements with the political and societal preoccupations of the age. The monster evolves over time - from Russia in the Cold War years through to lone actors and terrorists and now to seemingly shadowy figures controlling intelligence.

Whilst generally lighter in tone, such monsters also exist within children’s cinema. In recent years this monster has become increasingly defined by their use of highly sophisticated technology, finally becoming the technology in ‘The Mitchells vs. the Machine’*.

Lethal technology and subversive machines aren’t new concepts in children’s movies. They can, for example, be found in ‘Short Circuit’ back in 1986. This movie begins with five United States military robots in a training exercise against tanks and focusses upon one of the robots becoming ‘alive’ thanks to a power surge and then having to evade the other four robots.

Over 20 years later the animated ‘G-Force’ (2009) featured trained animal spies trying to foil a plot by a billionaire attempting to take over the world with household appliances (think Internet of Things). The release of ‘Big Hero 6’ (2016) had both the monster as subversive technology – or more specifically thousands of micro-bots being controlled by a neural transmitter – but also the title character as the robotic hero. The ending to the 2019 ‘Spies in Disguise’ movie (spoiler alert) features the release of 1,000 killer drones fitted with facial recognition technology to hunt down US intelligence agents – with disaster only averted at the last second by the ‘good guys’ finding the ‘kill switch’. The strong technology focus continues within ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ in 2020 which had the lead character, Sonic, pitted against his videogame nemesis Dr Robotnik. Amongst Dr Robotnik’s toolkit to capture Sonic were various types of lethal driverless vehicles and a multitude of drones for lethality and surveillance.

And so we come to the most recent release, ‘The Mitchells vs. the Machines’. Here the boundary line between technology as an enabler of the monster and the technology being the monster is clearly crossed as unlike in previous films there are no human protagonists controlling the technology.

The presence of technology in children’s entertainment is not just confined to the big screen. Various television animations feature technological innovations such as rogue driverless vehicles and malicious smart homes. As my daughter describes the events of one episode of the TV series ‘Barbie’, “The robot which had full control over Barbie’s dream house got turned into ‘evil’ mode and took control of the house, locking all of the doors, trapping everyone inside.”

Such content appears to me to represent a step change within children’s movies and television. The concept of machines manipulating humans to get what they want and being in control. Machines as threat actors rather than tools.

As within most children’s films there is a requirement for humour and within The Mitchells vs. the Machines it’s directed in places towards the adults in the room. The frequent references to not being able to function efficiently without technology and ‘free wi-fi’; ‘big tech’ - the captured creator of the intelligent robots reflected in his cell, saying: “I’m sorry about causing the whole machine uprising, it’s almost like stealing peoples data and giving it to a hyper-intelligent AI as part of an unregulated tech monopoly was a bad thing.”; and the limitations of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) itself - robots breaking when not able to identify a dog and confusing it for a loaf of bread before processing overload disables them.

Again such tropes are familiar from previous generations of children’s television. However, 30 years ago the technology featured was within the realm of pure science fiction versus the achievable science fact of today. This realisability cuts a little closer to the bone, almost forcing an awareness of the position we’re in before pulling back for the punchline.

Is this something which has increased over the past two years or is the issue one of awareness – have recent events pulled it more into the mainstream?

The Mitchells vs. the Machines has a similar premise to ‘NEXT’ (on rival service Disney+ and aimed firmly at adults) where rogue AI has decided to remove humanity from existence and will stop at nothing to protect itself from being erased. Whereas in The Mitchells vs. the Machines all that’s needed to manipulated humans is free wi-fi, NEXT takes this up a level encouraging shootings, inciting riots and plotting biological warfare.

The means may be different, but the message is the same – AI seduces users through simplifying users lives (as a helper) but give it unlimited agency and it will turn against those who created it. The line between helper and aggressor AI only becoming visible once it has been crossed.

Whilst easily characterised as entertainment and fiction such works highlight the need for the rethink of our relationship with ’big tech’ and how to navigate the benefits and risks of AI. As with many of the monsters Hollywood projects onto our screens and into our homes, they are more engaging with credibility behind them. It remains a fine balance between raising awareness, sensationalism and de-sensitising your audience. Within children’s cinema the portrayal and humourizing of technology and AI rapidly jumps between all three never quite knowing where the target is, let alone where it should be.

Such approaches within media have been noted elsewhere. Robert Work, Vice Chair of The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, spoke to the Atlantic Council on 29 April 2021 stating: “We have not done enough to explain to our citizens the positive benefits of AI.” After speaking of Chinese society as having an optimism about an AI-enabled future, he stated: “That’s not necessarily the case in the US and the West more broadly. I think we have been conditioned by our movies and our TV’s and our books. This conditioning has led to a more sceptical and possibly fearful view of an AI-enabled future.”

Given this possibility for both misunderstanding and education, I would say that now more than ever society needs to have conversations about the concept of agency within AI and the frameworks for deployment. Clearly, AI has the potential to positively affect society as a whole but the public isn’t maybe informed enough to make choices as to where AI can be used for good and where do we risk over-stepping the mark in outsourcing and potentially eroding our democratic agency.

Without such conversations, we will continue to rely upon Hollywood and it’s thirst for realisable monsters to host it for us, and while these movies may seem too far away, does this sensational direction of AI influence and scare or lead to dismissal of rational fears. Or will these types of movie increase interest from young people and act as a pull into careers in technology later in life?

In short, How do we integrate the less sensational narratives into the media to balance the debate? More the medical helper of Big Hero 6 and less the Robot Apocalypse maybe?

The Mitchells vs. the Machines released on Netflix 30 April 2021. Cinema release in 2020 cancelled due to Covid. Photograph: Netflix