AI: Hollywood vs Reality (Part 2)

Ernest de Leon:
Truman Show was a good movie from the plot, but it’s Ace Ventura running around in there, is what it is. And I couldn’t-

Jolie Hales:
I love that movie, not Ace Ventura. I love The Truman Show.

Ernest de Leon:
Oh, I love Ace Ventura. He was great.

Jolie Hales:
It’s so stupid.

Ernest de Leon:
It was stupid.

Jolie Hales:
Hi, everyone. I’m Jolie Hales.

Ernest de Leon:
And I’m Ernest de Leon.

Jolie Hales:
And welcome to the Big Compute podcast. Here, we celebrate innovation in a world of virtually unlimited compute, and we do it one important story at a time. We talk about the stories behind scientists and engineers who are embracing the power of high performance computing to better the lives of all of us.

Ernest de Leon:
From the products we use every day to the technology of tomorrow, computational engineering plays a direct role in making it all happen whether people know it or not.

Jolie Hales:
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Big Compute podcast. And before we get started, this is the continuation of the last episode. So, all about artificial intelligence in reality versus what’s depicted in movies over, basically, the last century.

Ernest de Leon:
Of course. And we know that Hollywood never takes license to embellish things.

Jolie Hales:
Oh, yeah. Basically, every AI movie we’ve talked about might as well have been a documentary.

Ernest de Leon:
May as well. Scientifically backed, peer reviewed even.

Movie Trailer:
They built Colossus supercomputer with a mind of its own, then they had to fight it for the world.

Jolie Hales:
Yeah. So, if none of this is making sense to you, that means you probably haven’t listened to that episode yet. So, now, is a good time for you to do so, so you know what we’re talking about. And for everyone else, as a refresher, in the last episode, we introduced Sam Altman.

Sam Altman:
Thinking, understanding intelligence like that really is what makes humans, humans.

Jolie Hales:
And specifically, we shared a little about what he said at the Big Compute 20 conference.

Jolie Hales at BC20:
It is my pleasure to be here with you at Big Compute. And as a reminder, Sam is the CEO of OpenAI. So, I’d say he knows a lot about this stuff. And we will be hearing more from him during this episode.

Ernest de Leon:
And more importantly, we journey down a cinematic timeline of AI related movies.

Jolie Hales:
We did indeed. We started with the movie Metropolis from 1927. And we hit most of the main AI related films up through the year 1987, with the movies, Not Quite Human.

Not Quite Human (1987):
Right in my central computer.

Jolie Hales:
And RoboCop.

RoboCop (1987):
You have the right to remain silent.

Jolie Hales:
Which means we still have a lot more movies to go through, given, I don’t know about you, Ernest, but I was barely alive when those last movies came out.

Ernest de Leon:
I was a small child. But I will tell you, the 80s I think we’re the peak of just science fiction in general.

Jolie Hales:
But we have to leave the 80s behind in order to get through the rest of this list. Which actually brings us to the 1990s. The first AI movie in the 1990s on my list is, I don’t think we’re going to be burning through this very quickly now, Star Trek: Generations.

Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: Generations (1994):
Engage!

Jolie Hales:
From 1994. I don’t know Ernest, was that one of the Star Trek movies that you’re a fan of?

Ernest de Leon:
I’m literally a fan of all them, so.

Jolie Hales:
Why do I even ask?

Ernest de Leon:
Even the new ones, which I know people have problems with. But-

Star Trek: Generations (1994) – Movie Trailer:
The mysterious ribbon where past of energy where past and future collide is unleashed.

Jolie Hales:
I feel I may have watched this with my dad growing up. But I can’t remember anything except… I do remember William Shatner because he was the Rescue 911 guy.

Captain James T. Kirk – Star Trek: Generations:
I was out saving the galaxy when your grandfather was in diapers.

Jolie Hales:
And I remember that the plot was something about them like thinking Captain Kirk is dead. And then, online it says they had to collaborate with an unlikely ally in order to stop someone from destroying a neighboring star. I don’t know, help me out here.

Ernest de Leon:
That’s the one thing about Star Trek. There’s always an unlikely ally, right? Always, of some kind. It’s random.

Jolie Hales:
And is the AI tie with Star Trek always the Data character, or the ship?

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. I would have to say if Data is in there, that’s more than likely to tie in. But also, there is the ship. But for some reason they’re showing a picture here of Leonard Nimoy even so…

Jolie Hales:
I don’t know. But I think it’s safe to say there was AI in there somewhere.

Data, Star Trek: Generations (1994):
Ten seconds to warp core breach.

William Riker, Star Trek: Generations (1994):
Brace for impact.

Jolie Hales:
And then, after Star Trek came to movies in 1995 that I’ve never seen, Johnny Mnemonic?

Ernest de Leon:
Yes, great movie.

Johnny Mnemonic (1995) – Movie Trailer:
The year is 2021. It is no longer safe to transmit information.

Jolie Hales:
So, it’s about a data courier who has a secret stash of information implanted in his mind that will kill him if he can’t retrieve it within 48 hours.

Johnny Mnemonic (1995) – Movie Trailer:
I could cure nearly 80 gigs of data in my head.

Jolie Hales:
That looks hilariously terrible for me, so perfect for you.

Ernest de Leon:
It is a terrible movie. By the way, it stars Keanu Reeves. He’s the data courier. And they store the data in there like in a cybernetic implant in their brain. So, if the data obviously is corrupt or has some virus implanted in one of the cases-

Jolie Hales:
Oh, it affects the person.

Ernest de Leon:
It could potentially kill them, right? Yeah. Movie was like I said-

Jolie Hales:
Bad?

Ernest de Leon:
By most accounts, it was a terrible movie but I loved it.

Jolie Hales:
Of course, you did.

Johnny Mnemonic (1995) – Movie Trailer:
Everyone wants what is stored in Johnny’s head.

Johnny Mnemonic:
Double cheese, anchovies?

Jolie Hales:
That same year, there was a movie that called, Ghost in the Shell and it’s actually an anime movie.

Ghost in the Shell (1995) – Movie Trailer:
[Japanese]

Jolie Hales:
And apparently, the story is that a cyber enhanced woman fights terrorism by hacking into people’s minds and controlling them. But then, she finds out that her life was originally stolen to make her that way. So, then, she goes on this quest to punish the perpetrator.

Ernest de Leon:
So, Ghost in the Shell is actually very popular. Obviously, you mentioned it’s anime. It’s been done in book form. But they also did a remix recently, I think was Charlize Theron in it.

Motoko Kusanagi, Ghost in the Shell (2017):
Maybe next time you can design me better.

Ernest de Leon:
It looks like it’s a Scarlett Johansson.

Ghost in the Shell (2017) – Movie Trailer:
They did not save your life. They stole it.

Ernest de Leon:
But yeah, it was excellent.

Ghost in the Shell (1995) – Movie Trailer:
[Japanese]

Jolie Hales:
Then, in 1999, there was Bicentennial Man.

Bicentennial Man (1999) – Movie Trailer:
By the year 2005. Are you once family? I guess so. Every home will have an NDR-114.

Jolie Hales:
With Robin Williams, where a family’s household appliance robot begins to experience emotions and creative thoughts.

Bicentennial Man (1999) – Movie Trailer:
What the hell is going on?  I am the proud owner of a central nervous system. You can feel.

Jolie Hales:
There’s also another film a few people might have heard about before.

Neo, The Matrix (1999):
What is the Matrix?

Ernest de Leon:
To me, I consider it a masterpiece. This se ries in general, but specifically the first movie. And again, Keanu Reeves stars.

Tank, The Matrix (1999):
What do you need?

Neo, The Matrix (1999):
Guns, lots of guns.

Ernest de Leon:
The humans gave birth to AI. And then, for whatever reason, became afraid of the AI and decided that they needed to turn it off. The AI realized it and attempted to stop them. And the largest power production at that point in time was solar. And so, the humans found a way to essentially block out the sun. However, the machines were able to still function at a limited level. And so, they quickly build alternative power sources, one of which is growing humans and using them as batteries, essentially.

Agent Smith, The Matrix (1999):
Human beings are disease. You are a cancer of this planet and we are the cure.

Ernest de Leon:
And then, as you go through the series, you start to realize the AI is also in its own prison as a result of just the limitations of having to exist in a machine world, right?

The Matix III – Movie Trailer:
The machines are digging. They’re burrowing from the surface straight down to Zion.

Morpheus, The Matrix III:
There is only one way to save our city, Neo.

Ernest de Leon:
It’s one of those where there is an obvious solution here, right, to come to peace, like coexistence. But neither side trust each other. And on top of that, you have an element of that AI that actually goes rogue, which is causing even more problems, right. And ironically, that turns out being the solution in the end, because both the humans and the AI realized that the only way to stop the rogue AI is for them to team up with each other.

Neo, The Matrix III:
The program Smith has grown beyond your control. You cannot stop him. But I can.

Deus Ex Machina, The Matrix III:
And if you fail?

Neo, The Matrix III:
I won’t.

Ernest de Leon:
It’s a very good series. But it’s just so divisive, like those people who hate it like to no end. And people like me who love it because it’s exploring so much of the human side of the AI story as opposed to the AI side of the AI story.

Jolie Hales:
Interesting. I’ve never seen The Matrix which is a sin.

Ernest de Leon:
It really is. If story and character, your thing, this is an excellent series. You just have to understand that this was the mid to late 90s. And the CG was limited, so.

Jolie Hales:
They bit more than they could chew for that era.

Ernest de Leon:
For that era, but it’s still great.

Cypher, The Matrix:
So, you’re here to save the world.

Ernest de Leon:
And there’s actually a new one coming out soon.

Jolie Hales:
What?

The Matrix IV – Movie Trailer:
We’d be going back to where it all started, back to the Matrix.

Neo, The Matrix IV:
I’ve had dreams that weren’t just dreams.

Jolie Hales:
All this talk about AI, I think it’s obvious that AI needs a lot of data to learn algorithms and function and all of that, right. But it’s not just about data.

Sam Altman:
But it turns out that the most impressive advances that we’ve had in the field of AI research, I think have been more about massive compute than massive data.

Ernest de Leon:
There it is high performance computing.

Jolie Hales:
Good old, Sam.

Sam Altman:
It turns out there’s lots of data available on the internet. There’s also this, in some cases, this equals E=mc² equivalents between a lot of compute and a lot of computing data because you can use a lot of compute to generate a lot of data. So, if you think about one of OpenAI’s results from last year, with Dota 2, we beat the best team in the world with no data whatsoever. The entire thing was the agents self-playing each other. Exploring the environment, trying what worked, sopping what didn’t, and good RL algorithms to do that.

Jolie Hales:
In case you aren’t familiar with this story. Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle video game that OpenAI used basically as a research platform for general purpose AI systems. And it basically learned how to play the game by playing more than 10,000 years’ worth of games against itself, if that makes sense.

ODPixel:
The crowd enjoying the lineup, the humans have presented here to OpenAI. As OpenAI will respond with a fifth pick Lion.

Fogged:
It will actually become a regular game of Dota.

ODPixel:
Oh, and look at that. The percentage has just gone up in milliseconds 80, 90, 95.

Fogged:
He changed his mind three times in a fraction of a second.

ODPixel:
That’s a lot of confidence.

Fogged:
That was, wow.

Jolie Hales:
According to OpenAI’s website, OpenAI Five, demonstrated the ability to achieve expert level performance, learn human AI cooperation, and operate at internet scale.” Eventually OpenAI Five got so good at playing Dota 2 that it started kicking the butts of the top human players in the world.

ODPixel:
And game two will also go to OpenAI.

Jolie Hales:
An accomplishment so major that even Bill Gates tweeted that it was this huge milestone in advancing artificial intelligence.

Sam Altman:
And there’s other cases like that as well, where we need very little data, we have a lot of computers to run a lot of simulations. Now, for a lot businesses, of course, it is important to have data. But for the field in general, I suspect data will be the least important of those three categories.

Ernest de Leon:
I assume they must have needed a large amount of compute for the AI to play 10,000 years of games.

Jolie Hales:
I would think so.

Sam Altman:
I think it is true that Moore’s law is slowing down. People have all kinds of ideas about things they’re going to do to keep it going, maybe they work, maybe they don’t. But the version of it that is important for AI, which is for AI specifically, how big can we make our biggest models.

Sam Altman:
However, we get there, plugging a bunch of computers together, optical interconnects, whatever it takes to be able to train these massive models, that has been growing about 8X per year, for about eight years now. And I think it’s going to keep going like that for about five years.

Sam Altman:
So again, at this point, I have this like, narrow focus on this one thing that’s really important to me. There’s probably a lot of other things that are going to happen for compute. But the question is, are we going to have bigger and bigger computers to train neural networks on? And the answer is, yes. And that’s super exciting.

Jolie Hales:
And that brings us to the 21st century, when supercomputing really started to take off and AI started to lean out of sci-fi fantasy and more into reality. And with this technological transition came a new AI related blockbuster just about every year from this point out. And the first one was Steven Spielberg’s AI Artificial Intelligence in 2001.

AI Artificial Intelligence (2001) – Movie Trailer:
At a time when man has become dependent on robots to satisfy our every need.

Gigolo Joe, AI Artificial Intelligence (2001):
Man made us better at what we do than was ever humanly possible.

Jolie Hales:
And we’ve talked about how there seem to be a few different common plot paths for AI movies, either they’re about some AI robot or computer that turns evil and threatens to the destruction of the world or something. Or, it’s about some robot that learns to love, alluding to the idea that you don’t have to be human to have value. And this Spielberg movie follows that second path, being about a robotic boy programmed to love who then embarks on a journey to discover where he truly belongs.

Professor Allen Hobby, AI Artificial Intelligence:
Until you were born, robots didn’t train, robots didn’t desire unless we told them what to want.

Jolie Hales:
I did watch this movie when it came out. I remember thinking it was a little odd. But I was also younger, maybe I would enjoy it more now or maybe I would hate it more. I’m not really sure.

Gigolo Joe, AI Artificial Intelligence:
They made us too smart, too quick, and too many. That’s why they hate us.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. And I remember watching it too. And the thing it reminded me of was Pinocchio. Yeah, it was a good movie-

Jolie Hales:
Coming of age, that makes sense.

Ernest de Leon:
But discovering where you belong, right? Because that was part of the theme and that story.

Pinocchio (1940) – Movie Trailer:
What is your name? Pinocchio. Pinocchio.

Jolie Hales:
I like that you said Pinocchio because like Frankenstein, which is about a creature that has value, even though it’s not human, Pinocchio really does. It is the family friendly version of that.

Ernest de Leon:
It is, right.

Jolie Hales:
That’s an interesting comparison.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. That tackles multiple themes. There’s also the theme of why Geppetto made Pinocchio, right, and what he meant to him. And so, there’s a lot of themes rolled up in there. But yeah, I guess, the default in this here is, as opposed to being programmed, right. Jiminy Cricket was his conscience, right, in there. So, yeah. It’s an interesting parallel line.

Pinocchio (1940) – Movie Trailer:
A real boy? You’re alive? And you are a real boy.

Jolie Hales:
And then, in 2002, came Minority Report.

John Anderton, Minority Report (2002):
I’m placing you under arrest for the future murder of Sarah Marks-

Jolie Hales:
Which takes place in the year 2054, when police are apparently able to utilize a psychic technology to arrest and convicted murderers before they commit their crimes.

Danny Witwer, Minority Report (2002):
We are arresting individuals who have broken no law, but they will.

Jolie Hales:
And then, there’s a man I think it was Tom Cruise, if I remember, right.

John Anderton, Minority Report (2002):
You’re going to have to chase me.

Jolie Hales:
He’s accused of a future murder of someone he’s never met.

John Anderton, Minority Report (2002):
I’ve never heard of him, but I’m supposed to kill him in less than 36 hours.

Ernest de Leon:
Let me say, I have seen this movie.

Jolie Hales:
I have too.

Ernest de Leon:
But I have only seen it one time, and I don’t remember hardly anything about it.

Jolie Hales:
Likewise. So, I guess, we’re moving on.

Ernest de Leon:
Tells me how good of a movie it was, yeah.

Minority Report (2002) – Movie Trailer:
You tell me, who was it set this up?

John Anderton, Minority Report (2002):
I don’t know.

Jolie Hales:
And then, in the same year, so again, in 2002, there was also Resident Evil.

Resident Evil (2002) – Movie Trailer:
You are all going to die down here.

Jolie Hales:
Based on the video game, and that was about a deadly virus stemming from a genetic slab that starts turning people into zombies. And then, a commando team has three hours to shut down the lab supercomputer before the virus overruns Earth.

Resident Evil (2002) – Movie Trailer:
Who’s the Red Queen? State of the art artificial intelligence.

Ernest de Leon:
And this is another one where I watched it. I was disappointed obviously because I’ve played all the games.

Jolie Hales:
Oh, you’ve played the Resident Evils? I can’t handle them. They’re too scary.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. Not the more recent ones. But early on, I did play them. And yeah, I was also less than thrilled. But to be honest, it’s a video game movie, what do you really-

Jolie Hales:
Yeah, what do you expect, right?

Ernest de Leon:
It’s like the masterpieces from Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, right? You’re not going in there looking for an award. This is just an action thing. You want to see things get blown up, and then you walk out happy, that’s how it works.

Resident Evil (2002) – Movie Trailer:
They have only three hours left before it begins infecting and mutating the whole human race.

Jolie Hales:
And then in 2004, there was the Will Smith movie that I did see, I, Robot.

I, Robot (2004) – Movie Trailer:
We design them to be trusted with our homes, with our way of life, with our world. But did we design them to be trusted?

Jolie Hales:
And that took place in the year 2035. So, again, another future projection, which again, not that far away from 2021, to be honest. And in that story, there were highly intelligent robots that filled public service positions throughout the world. And then, Will Smith play this character called Detective Spooner.

Detective Spooner – I, Robot (2004):
Oh, hell no.

Jolie Hales:
Who investigates what he believes to be a murder by one of these robots and ends up uncovering a conspiracy that may lead to enslaving the human race.

Detective Spooner – I, Robot (2004):
Murder is a new trick for robot respond.

I, Robot (2004) – Movie Trailer:
I did not murder him!

Detective Spooner – I, Robot (2004):
We’re going to miss the good old days.

Lt. John Bergin – I, Robot (2004):
What good old days?

Detective Spooner – I, Robot (2004):
When people were killed by other people.

Jolie Hales:
So, again, another example of AI becoming evil.

Susan Calvin – I, Robot (2004):
Dr. Lanning suggested robots might naturally evolve.

I, Robot (2004) – Movie Trailer:
I was hoping to see you again, detective. Think of me as your friend.

Jolie Hales:
I do want to see this one again because I do remember enjoying it.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. I don’t remember either I did see it and… I don’t know what it is but I feel most movies Will Smith is in are just not good movies. So, and I don’t think that’s a reflection on him.

Jolie Hales:
Wait, what the about the zombie one? What was the zombie one?

Ernest de Leon:
I don’t remember the name of it. But see, that tells you everything.

Jolie Hales:
Shoot.

Ernest de Leon:
I saw it, but, I guess, because I grew up with him in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, I just cannot-

Jolie Hales:
Unsee that.

Ernest de Leon:
Unsee that and take him seriously.

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air:
And all shooting some b-ball outside of the school.

Jolie Hales:
I actually think Will Smith is a phenomenal performer. I think he’s very real. So, I’m able to forget Fresh Prince of Bel-Air like I can see Steve Carell and other roles aside from Michael in The Office.

Michael Scott – The Office (NBC):
I declare bankruptcy!

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. I agree. This is not a comment on his acting skill. I think he’s a great actor. It’s just that growing up with him in one context, I cannot-

Jolie Hales:
Yeah. It’s like Pee-wee Herman, you couldn’t see him in anything else.

Ernest de Leon:
Exactly. And Jim Carrey.

Jolie Hales:
Oh, yeah.

Ernest de Leon:
Try to do serious movies. It’s like I just can’t. I can’t do.

Jolie Hales:
Wow. See, I am such a Truman Show fan.

Truman Burbank – The Truman Show (1998):
In case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and good night.

Jolie Hales:
Where are we? 2005. 2005, there’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) – Trailer:
What did you do to the people of earth?

Vogon Jeltz – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
I regret to inform you that in order to make way for the new hyperspace express route, your planet has been scheduled for demolition.

Jolie Hales:
Where a character named Arthur goes to outer space with his alien friend and tries to discover the meaning of life while he makes his way across the stars.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) – Trailer:
Who is this thing? It’s the guide. He’s got everything you need to know to survive in the universe.

Jolie Hales:
And the AI element in this movie is apparently a spoiler. So, I guess, go watch it if you’re someone who cares.

Ernest de Leon:
The story itself is great. And the line that I always love to use from the story is something like farewell, good luck, and thanks for all the fish. And that’s the message of the dolphins leave before they evacuate.

Jolie Hales:
I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005):
[singing]. So long, so long, and thanks for all the fish!

Jolie Hales:
And then, in 2007, there was my favorite but really the opposite of favorite, because I was not a fan, Transformers.

Sec. John Keller – Transformers (2007):
We’re facing war against a technological civilization far superior to our own.

Jolie Hales:
Where good robots and bad robots have a war on earth and threaten total destruction of the planet. And I really could not say enough about how dumb I think the Transformer movies are. I think they’re cool to look at. And there’s some imaginative elements I can appreciate. But I’m not a Michael Bay fan because from a substance perspective, let’s just say no, not a lot there.

Sam Witwicky – Transformers (2007):
It’s a robot, like the super advanced robot. It’s probably Japanese.

Ernest de Leon:
This one’s really tough for me because I’m a huge fan of Transformers.

Jolie Hales:
Yeah. Well, the original cartoon was great.

Ernest de Leon:
Right. I grew up with them as a kid and they used to teach a lot of little lessons-

Jolie Hales:
Lessons.

Ernest de Leon:
… in their episodes.

Jolie Hales:
Optimus Prime was the man.

Ernest de Leon:
Whoever wrote his character, they knew exactly what a leader should be.

Optimus Prime – Original Transformers TV Show:
Perhaps someday, you will see that there are more important things in life than revenge.

Ernest de Leon:
And they are AI, right, all of them. Because AI is the wrong term, these are sentient beings.

Jolie Hales:
Yeah. These are like aliens. But they’re machines from a human perspective, so them AI.

Ernest de Leon:
Exactly, yeah. Unfortunately, that was an excellent intellectual property that got ruined.

Jolie Hales:
Yeah. And then, he ruined Ninja Turtles which, oh, my. You don’t mess with my Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael and Leonardo. And he did. He turned them into like weird looking… well, anyway, we don’t need to go into that because they’re not AI. Anyway, moving on to happier films, in 2008, there was the Pixar film which I am a fan of, Wall-E.

Wall-E (2008) – Trailer:
Wall-E.

Wall-E:
Wall-E.

Jolie Hales:
About a trash cleaner robot who develops a personality after 700 years of the same garbage cleaning tasks. And then, he embarks on a great adventure when he meets a sleek scanning robot and the apparent love of his life.

Wall-E (2008) – Trailer:
That’s all these years, he’s developed one little glitch.

Wall-E:
Wow.

Wall-E (2008) – Trailer:
A personality.

Jolie Hales:
Side note, there is an instrumental track in the score, and it’s only a minute long. It’s called, Define Dancing and it is just gorgeous.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. Wall-E is a great movie. It’s a children’s movie, right? That’s obvious, but-

Jolie Hales:
But there’s always bigger like themes-

Ernest de Leon:
The themes-

Jolie Hales:
… and messages-

Ernest de Leon:
You’re right.

Jolie Hales:
…in Pixar films.

Ernest de Leon:
Right. A lot of social commentary in there. And yeah, it was great to see it. I was pleasantly surprised by that movie.

Wall-E (2008) – Trailer:
I know that guy, it’s Wall-E.

Jolie Hales:
And then, in 2009, came a movie called, Moon which I have not seen.

Gertie – Moon (2009):
Good morning, Sam. Do you want me to comb your hair?

Moon (2009):
Lunar Industries remains the number one provider of clean energy worldwide.

Jolie Hales:
Apparently, it’s about a man who works a three-year shift and a lunar mine. And then he starts having hallucinations and health problems. And then, he meets what appears to be a clone of himself. And then, he has to solve the mystery of what’s going on in a short amount of time. And after reading about it, I’m not sure what the AI angle is in this movie. I think it is spoiler related, which is why it was listed as an AI movie everywhere I read, but I couldn’t see how. But it does have to do with outer space. So, I’m sure there’s some AI machine or spaceship or something.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. I have not seen the movie either. But I’m going to guess if they’re listing it as under AI, and the guy sees a clone of himself, my guess is that-

Jolie Hales:
Well, let me think.

Ernest de Leon:
Is not only is the clone AI, he himself is AI. And they’re just cycling through these AIs like they go into-

Jolie Hales:
I wonder if that’s it.

Ernest de Leon:
… these mines and they eventually die. Again, I’m just making this up, because I have not seen the movie.

Jolie Hales:
Yeah. It’s not spoiler if we have no idea.

Sam Bell – Moon (2009):
You tell me who that is.

Gertie – Moon (2009):
Perhaps you’re imagining things.

Jolie Hales:
And if you think about it, I mean, a lot of these movies like we were talking about, they take place at a specific time in the future, right, where maybe robots are supposedly going to be the norm. Which makes me think that all of us believe that that’s a realistic possibility, we just don’t know when. I, Robot takes place in 2034. And I’m not quite sure we’re going to see the wide adoption of robots by then like we didn’t have flying cars in 2015 that were forecasted in Back to the Future 2. But who knows? Maybe there will be an AI boom. But I think more likely AI progress will continue to be gradual, at least until it hits a certain point.

Sam Altman:
I think there are very rare, occasional decisions where a small group of people tired at three in the morning in a conference room, make a 5545 call. And it has a massive influence on the outcome of history. But those are extremely rare. Most of the time, it’s squiggling, around a curve that’s going to go up into the right and unfold this technological future. And you get it a little bit wrong, you get a little bit right, but eventually, progress continues. So, in terms of those, you incredibly consequential decisions, everyone has got a story they love. The one I love is the Russian military officer that decided not to push the button to launch a nuclear bomb when he thought that they were likely under attack, and it turned out to be an instrument error. And that one decision by one individual when he really all of his training and policies, or he should have pushed the button to launch. That’s a case where the world could have really gone the other way. And to be perfectly honest, I think a decision like that is bigger than all of in terms of one hinge decision, any single decision tech companies usually make.

Jolie Hales:
And there will be times in the future, Sam says, where progress will run into obstacles. It’s not just, “Oh, hey, we’ve got this AI thing, full speed ahead.”

Sam Altman:
Well, I think the technical barriers are still huge. And it’s a mistake to say they’re not. We will squiggle around the exponential curve of progress up and down. And there will be moments in a down that could last months or years, where people are like, “the AI winter is here.”

Sam Altman:
And there will be periods that are difficult. There will be periods where we’re walking in the wilderness. And at some point, people will be right. But people are so desperate to say, now it’s going to stop working. And they have been.

Jolie Hales:
And when Sam says the people are quick to say AI is going to stop working, he’s referring to the AI naysayers, the ones who don’t believe that there actually is an AI revolution coming, not just those who fear what will happen to their jobs. So, maybe they’re inclined to hope the AI isn’t a reality, but those who look at AI, like many looks at quantum computing.

Jolie Hales:
They’re told it’s going to change the world. But the only tangible evidence they have are pictures of a sci-fi gold to be contraption thing that looks like a jellyfish and not necessarily life changing innovation.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. That’s an interesting perspective because there are those who are naysayers, this is never going to happen. But there are plenty of us who are, “Look, this is inevitable.” And if you think about it logically, humans typically design and create things that mimic nature and life. We create robots that look like us. We create robots that resemble dogs, right? Like what Boston Dynamics is doing. And it’s because we’re looking at nature and figuring out how does this work, and then we figure it out. And I think the big hole back here is that we really don’t understand well enough how the human brain operates.

Jolie Hales:
Maybe.

Ernest de Leon:
But that time is going to come. And when that happens, we will figure out how to replicate that exactly.

Jolie Hales:
In a machine form.

Ernest de Leon:
In a machine.

Jolie Hales:
That would be crazy.

Ernest de Leon:
And I think that’s where the fear comes from people that, if I were to travel back in time and take an iPhone with me to 1776 and show it to our founding fathers-

Jolie Hales:
They would die.

Ernest de Leon:
They would probably try to kill me.

Jolie Hales:
Burn you at the stake.

Ernest de Leon:
Exactly. Thinking I was some a warlock or something, right? Because to them, it’s magic, right? And so, the same thing is going to happen again. So, I agree with Sam. I think where he thinks this is going is inevitable. It’s not a matter of if it’s when and the prudent thing to do is to prepare for it.

Sam Altman:
What I can say with certainty is the things that we know work are going to go a lot further, that’s an exponential curve. The flood of talented people to go ask any really smart 18-year-old studying computer science in college what they want to work on, they’re likely to say AI. And the flood of talent into the field is on an exponential, so that’s two together.

Jolie Hales:
And Sam believes that this flood of talent will greatly move AI progress further.

Sam Altman:
I think there are things that will work better than we thought and worse than we thought. And we will hit some dark periods of stumbling blocks. But the biggest miracle of all, is that we got an algorithm that can learn full stop. Truly legitimately, we have an algorithm that can learn.

Sam Altman:
And it seems to keep scaling with more compute. In my whole career, the central lesson has been that on scale, scale things are more than you think. And when people see a curve going that’s like this and it stops here and they’re asked to predict, the next 10 years of progress. My default assumption is to believe that the curve keeps going for a while at least, and most people’s default assumption seems to believe that it’s going to keep going on the same exponential for three more months, and then perfectly flatline. Which is a weird framework, and I don’t think what’s going to happen.

Jolie Hales:
From supersonic jets to personalized medicine, industry leaders are turning to rescale to power science and engineering breakthroughs. Rescale is a full stack automation solution for hybrid cloud that helps IT and HPC leaders deliver intelligent computing as a service. And enables the enterprise transformation to digital RND. As a proud sponsor of the Big Compute podcast, Rescale would especially like to say thank you to all the scientists and engineers out there who are working to make a difference for all of us. Rescale, intelligent computing for digital R&D. Learn more at rescale.com/bcpodcast. And that brings us to the 2010s. Is that what we call them, the 2010s, the 10s?

Ernest de Leon:
Well, I’ll say this, we’ve established it the 80s were the greatest decade and the 90s were pretty good. As far as I’m concerned, it just went downhill after that. So, it doesn’t-

Jolie Hales:
So, it’s not even worth giving it a nickname.

Ernest de Leon:
Not even worth it. The childhood of those born in the 2000s and 2010s, they got robbed. They don’t know how else to put it.

Jolie Hales:
During whatever this decade is called the 2010s, the 10s, I don’t know. I’ll begin with 2012’s, Robot & Frank.

Hunter – Robot & Frank (2012):
You have a problem. I brought you something.

Robot – Robot & Frank (2012):
Hi, Frank.

Frank – Robot & Frank (2012):
You have got to be kidding me. That thing is going to murder me in my sleep.

Jolie Hales:
Which is about an elderly jewel thief suffering from dementia who ends up introducing his robot-like caretaker gift to a life of crime.

Ernest de Leon:
I have not seen that one.

Jolie Hales:
That one looks clever to me.

Frank – Robot & Frank (2012):
I got to get rid of all the evidence.

Robot – Robot & Frank (2012):
Frank, my memory can be used against you.

Sheriff Rowlings – Robot & Frank (2012):
Don’t you touch that robot, Frank.

Frank – Robot & Frank (2012):
Get in.

Sheriff Rowlings – Robot & Frank (2012):
Frank.

Jolie Hales:
And then, in 2013, there was the movie called The Machine.

The Machine (2013) – Trailer:
Conscious machines of dangerous.

Vincent – The Machine (2013):
This machine has the potential to be so much more than just a soldier.

Jolie Hales:
Where a man and woman fall in love while creating the world’s first self-aware artificial intelligence. And then, the military steals their technology to make an out-of-control robotic weapon.

Ernest de Leon:
I’ve not seen that one either, but it sounds plausible.

The Machine (2013) – Trailer:
They think you’re too human.

Jolie Hales:
And then, in that same year, came the movie called, Her.

Her (2013) – Trailer:
Please wait as your operating system is initiated.

Samantha, Her (2013):
Hello, I’m here.

Theodore – Her (2013):
Hi.

Samantha – Her (2013):
Hi.

Jolie Hales:
Which is, basically, sensitive guy falls for intelligent robot.

Ernest de Leon:
No, never saw it.

Samantha – Her (2013):
I saw on your emails that you come through a breakup.

Theodore – Her (2013):
You’re nosy.

Jolie Hales:
Then, Transcendence was released in 2014 with Johnny Depp.

Dr. Will Caster – Transcendence (2014):
Some scientists refer to this as the singularity.

James Thomas – Transcendence (2014):
Professor?

Dr. Will Caster – Transcendence (2014):
I call it transcendence.

Jolie Hales:
Where the world’s top expert on artificial intelligence develops an insatiable quest for power as he works to create sentient machines.

Evelyn Caster – Transcendence (2014):
We can upload his consciousness. We can save him.

Ernest de Leon:
Not seen that one either. But also, I will tell you this, I don’t think I could do Johnny Depp in a serious role.

Jolie Hales:
Really? After Captain Jack Sparrow or something?

Ernest de Leon:
Exactly. Which I love by the way.

Jolie Hales:
Yeah. He does phenomenal in that.

Ernest de Leon:
He does phenomenal in that.

Jolie Hales:
Bu then, they took it too far and made 20 sequels.

Capt. Jack Sparrow – Pirates of the Caribbean IV:
I’m skeptical of predicting any future, which includes me.

Jolie Hales:
And then, there’s the movie I’m sure you’ve probably seen Ernest called, Interstellar.

Ernest de Leon:
Yes.

Jolie Hales:
That same year with Matthew McConaughey.

Interstellar (2014) – Trailer:
It’s an Indian surveillance drone.

Jolie Hales:
Where a team of researchers go through an outer space wormhole and across the galaxy to find a planet to be mankind’s new home. And they are joined by quadrilateral robots or something?

Professor Brand – Interstellar (2014):
Were not meant to save the world, we’re meant to leave it.

Jolie Hales:
I actually have only seen parts of this movie. I haven’t seen the whole thing. And I can’t quite make sense of the plot any way that I read about it. So, it sounds it might just be one of those stories that goes a few different ways. But I have seen that crying scene a bunch of times. Do you what I’m talking about?

Ernest de Leon:
Yes, I know exactly what you’re talking about.

Jolie Hales:
Because hilarious on the internet people on the internet are juxtaposing that clip with all kinds of random stuff.

Interstellar (2014):
This might be a really good time for you to come back.

Ernest de Leon:
That’s a great movie. If you’ve never seen it. But I will warn you, it’s a cerebral movie. So-

Jolie Hales:
Yeah, I’ve heard that.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah, if you’re not ready for some mind bending, you’re going to have a tough time in this movie.

Jolie Hales:
Yeah, that’s why I haven’t seen it. Eventually, I’ll get there, I think. It just sounds I’m going to need to take a nap when I’m done watching it.

Professor Brand – Interstellar (2014):
You must reach far beyond our own lifespans.

Sam Altman:
I think one thing that the technology industry gets wrong and I myself am often guilty of this is believing that technology solves all problems.

Jolie Hales:
That’s Sam again stating what Hollywood has been teaching us for decades. Sometimes, technology can turn evil. Well, okay, maybe not evil, but it can definitely create additional challenges.

Sam Altman:
I think technology creates a lot of problems too. I believe it’s not good for the world, but there’s a balance sheet.

Ernest de Leon:
Sam says the proof that technology doesn’t solve every problem shows up in places where technology thrives.

Sam Altman:
The current generation of young people is the first generation. If you believe the polling, which who knows in American history to not think their lives are going to be better than their parents. So, this has worked for 244 years or 40, and now, it doesn’t. And I think starting with why it doesn’t is a great question to start with.

Ernest de Leon:
I agree that technology doesn’t solve all problems, 100%. But I think the real issue isn’t that people believe it solves all problems, is that people don’t understand the cost of solving the problem. And what I mean by that is, often when you solve a problem, you create other problems.

Jolie Hales:
Other problems.

Ernest de Leon:
There’s a cost involved and there’s a trade off, and people don’t understand that. And that creates a negative perception that like, oh, technology fixes everything. But then, they don’t look at the cost they paid for it. And then, later on, when they have to reckon with that cost, they get a sour taste for the technology, not realizing that it’s not the technology’s fault. The technology is not sentient right now. It’s a nert. It’s us that made the decision, right. So, when someone is unhappy with it, we’re unhappy with ourselves, that’s really what it comes down to.

Jolie Hales:
Right. Like we didn’t maybe anticipate what the problem is going to be early enough, and then strive to solve it before it happens. Sometimes, you can’t do that, probably, but I think we could put more effort into it. One thing that comes to mind in the same realm is there really is a lot of evidence that. For example, teenagers who spend a lot of time online or on social media end up struggling more with depression and anxiety, and they’re less social. And honestly, who can blame them. I mean, they’re having to compare themselves to impractical images of perfection in a world of trolls, when they’re still trying to figure out who they are. And their prefrontal cortex is aren’t developed at all, enough to handle that stuff. And I just wish we would have anticipated that as the technology developed, that we would maybe stumble upon this problem, instead of just handing every kid a smartphone with a full data plan. You know what I mean? I mean, that’s a little bit of a soapbox for me. But I think that’s along the same lines of having social media has made it easier to communicate with people we don’t live nearby. But then, there has been this entire new world of issues that have come with it. And how do you anticipate something like that until you see the full effects.

Ernest de Leon:
That is true. And I’ll even point out, when I was a kid, fast forward to the internet first coming into homes in the early to mid-90s. I had gotten a computer. I basically worked all summer mowing lawns and stuff, saved up all this money and got this cheap little computer. But it was able to connect to the internet. And at the time, my parents had no idea how any… to this day, they have no idea how any of that works.

Jolie Hales:
And back then, the internet was a little bit dangerous, because it was brand new. There’s all these like, was it in the day of the chat room?

Ernest de Leon:
Chat rooms, AOL, yes.

Jolie Hales:
And it’s easy to get addicted to it when you’re 12 or whatever.

Ernest de Leon:
Exactly. And they had no idea how any of it works. So, there’s no way they could have anticipated and had I gone down the wrong path with it. Instead of turning it into a career, it could have been devastating, right? Now, it’s much more regulated, whatnot. But the point is, it’s hard, right, for parents to, especially if they’re not technologically savvy, to understand what this technology can do. I don’t think even the companies that developed it understood what it could do.

Jolie Hales:
No, I don’t think so either. The psychological effects of social media on a teenage brain was not something that Facebook developers were thinking of when Zuckerberg was coming up with the idea of Facebook.

Ernest de Leon:
Right. I get it. I feel sorry, right, for a lot of these kids who had to grow up in this world, where it was literally the Wild West, and there was no one there to help them. And even they didn’t realize what they were doing to themselves.

Jolie Hales:
Right. I’m hopeful that we can find ways to reverse any negative effects and help them to develop a stronger sense of self that’s more true, you know what I mean? If we haven’t already failed them enough at this point. And along the same line of challenges and problems that technology can bring. I’ve also heard a lot about how AI is going to supposedly destroy cybersecurity. Because when you combine quantum computing with AI, supposedly every password in existence will be figured out with the snap of a finger. And Epic Compute 20, Sam did acknowledge the threat AI could have on cybersecurity.

Sam Altman:
I don’t think in the next couple of years, but on a longer timeframe is the threat that advanced AI will post a cybersecurity, I think is likely to be huge. Even without that, cybersecurity is difficult. So, I think that’s a great problem to focus on.

Jolie Hales:
But he also said people like me are probably worrying about the wrong thing.

Sam Altman:
People love to talk about quantum computing, breaking encryption. And I think that is not a thing to be super concerned about. I think the number of logical qubits that it takes to do that are far enough off, that we’ll know when they’re getting close. And I also think that we have plenty of time to transition to quantum resistant encryption.

Jolie Hales:
So, that’s good to know. How about you, Ernest? What are your general thoughts on AI and cybersecurity, given your background?

Ernest de Leon:
Nothing is going to change.

Jolie Hales:
You don’t think?

Ernest de Leon:
No. And I’ll tell you why, having done cybersecurity for so long now, it is a constant rat race. It is whac-a-mole. It is one side edging out the other, and then the other one edging out the other. So, the minute quantum computing gets applied to cryptography to decrypt within weeks, if not days, they’re going to apply quantum computing to cryptography to encrypt. So, it’s going to end up-

Jolie Hales:
Interesting.

Ernest de Leon:
…at a stalemate like it is now, right?

Jolie Hales:
Interesting.

Ernest de Leon:
And the premise that this is based on is that cybersecurity remains in a binary world while quantum computing allows malicious folks to move into a qubit driven world. And that’s not how it’s going to happen.

Jolie Hales:
Interesting. Okay. I’m picking up what you’re throwing down.

Ernest de Leon:
Now, don’t get me wrong. There might be an intermediary phase where there’s a little bit of chaos, right? Because one gets ahead of the other-

Jolie Hales:
Because of transition, yeah, exactly.

Ernest de Leon:
…but like Star Wars preaches, right, there will always be balance with the force. Equilibrium will be reached no matter what.

Jolie Hales:
And Sam says that people may need to adapt their trust in new ways as technology continues to progress.

Sam Altman:
And I think the world had gotten used to over a period of time, photoshopped images. And now, people know not to trust them. But people do still trust, text press releases, news, whatever, for the most part. And a new thing that I think will happen is we’re not that far away from entirely fake videos of world leaders saying whatever you want, and people tend to trust that too. And I think the world needs time to adapt to that new reality.

Jolie Hales:
He also has some ideas on how society might adapt.

Sam Altman:
My guess is that someday far in the future, when world leaders give an address, they cryptographically sign it. And we just get used to that, all videos can be faked. Or, they only tweet it from their account or whatever. But there will somehow be verification. And I think the world needs time to adapt to that.

Jolie Hales:
And just as the world needs time to adapt to AI, we need time to get through the rest of these AI movies. So, continuing into the 2010s or whatever they’re called. In 2014, there was Automata, how do you say this?

Ernest de Leon:
I think it’s Automata or Automata.

Dra. Dupre – Automata (2014):
A machine altering itself as a very complex concept. Self-repairing implies some idea of a conscience.

Jolie Hales:
The story of an insurance agent at a robotics company who discovers something that has profound consequences for the human race.

Jacq Vaucan – Automata (2014):
You’re just a machine.

Automata (2014) – Trailer:
Just a machine? That’s like saying that you’re just an ape.

Jolie Hales:
And then, in 2015, there was, Chappie, which sounds a reversed RoboCop movie to me.

Anderson Cooper – Chappie (2015):
The deployment of the planet’s first robotic police units. Became the focus of the world in 2016.

Chappie (2015) – Trailer:
Drop your weapons, you’re under arrest.

Jolie Hales:
It’s takes place in a future world of mechanical police forces. And then, one robotic cop is reprogrammed, and then gains the ability to feel and think for himself, which makes him a perceived danger to mankind.

Michelle Bradley – Chappie (2015):
A thinking robot could be the end of mankind.

Chappie – Chappie (2015):
I don’t want to die. I want to live.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. I saw it. And I think it’s actually aligned with RoboCop, which is there’s a fleet of mechanized police and they do what they’re told. He is reprogrammed gains the ability to feel and think for himself.

Jolie Hales:
Oh, yeah, that is kinda the same.

Ernest de Leon:
And the perceived danger is the fact that he no longer conforms, right?

Jolie Hales:
Gotcha.

Ernest de Leon:
Right. But that’s really what RoboCop did too.

Ninja – Chappie (2015):
If you want to survive, Chappie, you must fight.

Jolie Hales:
And then, in 2015, there was Ex Machina.

Nathan – Ex Machina (2015):
How do you feel about her?

Caleb – Ex Machina (2015):
Her AI is beyond doubt.

Nathan – Ex Machina (2015):
No, nothing analytical. Just how do you feel?

Caleb – Ex Machina (2015):
I feel that she’s amazing.

Jolie Hales:
Where a computer programmer is chosen to determine the capabilities and consciousness of a beautiful robot woman who is apparently more self-aware than anyone ever imagined.

Caleb – Ex Machina (2015):
Do you have a name?

Ava – Ex Machina (2015):
Ava.

Jolie Hales:
You’ve seen that one, haven’t you, Ernest? It’s actually one of the higher rated AI films that I found on Metacritic?

Ernest de Leon:
Yes. I have seen it and it is excellent.

Ava – Ex Machina (2015):
Caleb, you have to help me.

Jolie Hales:
And then, in 2016, there was a movie called, Passengers.

Arthur – Passengers (2016):
You two look fine this evening.

Aurora Lane Passengers (2016):
We’re on a date.

Arthur – Passengers (2016):
Very nice.

Jolie Hales:
They had Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. So, some big stars in it. And apparently, the story is the two of them wake up on a spaceship from where it’s supposed to be some hibernation sleep. And then, they develop a big fat love crush on each other, Titanic style. And then, AI related stuff happens where they have to save the lives of the other 5,000 sleeping spaceship passengers who are now in grave danger for some reason.

Aurora Lane – Passengers (2016):
Do you know what’s going on? Nobody else is awake.

Jim Preston – Passengers (2016):
I think something went wrong with the hibernation pods.

Arthur – Passengers (2016):
You woke up too soon.

Jim Preston – Passengers (2016):
Nine years too soon.

Ernest de Leon:
Yes, I saw this movie. It is a good movie. But I will tell you that this description doesn’t do it justice. There’s some messed up stuff that happens in this movie that, again, I don’t want to ruin it for people who haven’t seen it because this is fairly recent, like five years ago, right?

Jolie Hales:
Yeah.

Ernest de Leon:
The overall synopsis is correct, but there’s a lot more to the story between the two of them. That’s all I’m going to say.

Jolie Hales:
Oh, and it’s worth watching you say?

Ernest de Leon:
Oh, yeah. It’s worth watching. Overall, look, I’m not going to say it should win awards or anything like that. But this doesn’t do it justice, you really need to watch it.

Jim Preston – Passengers (2016):
Something’s wrong. Something big.

Jolie Hales:
And I mean, I think it’s interesting. We’ve talked about this, how in AI movies, almost all of them are about the coexistence of humans and AI machines, and what that relationship is, what that cohabitation is. Whether the humans are good and the AI machines are evil, or vice versa. It seems all of these movies explore the idea of this coexistence. And I don’t know, maybe this coexistence between AI and humans is so interesting to pop culture because it’s really a mystery, right? It’s something we’re just exploring with our imaginations right now. We don’t know exactly what a future with humans and AI is going to look like. We just know it’s going to be different. And we keep moving forward teaching machines how to navigate thought.

Sam Altman:
I would say just more generally, generalized learning is exciting of many forms. Algorithms that can learn their own problems, that can go off and explore, the ability to learn a lot about one task and apply it to another task. The ability to pre-train these big models and then use them to solve other problems with their knowledge of the world. I think human intelligence is very near, is very close to this concept that you can take existing information and thoughts and apply them quickly to new problems. And actually, I think it’s remarkable how quickly humans can learn. It takes a long time to train up, maybe it takes 20 years to get pretty smart. But then, you can learn a new thing very fast. And then, you can apply that new knowledge that you’re told once or a few times to solve a new problem in three seconds. And the fact that we’re beginning to see that happen with AI, I think is quite remarkable.

Jolie Hales:
And while we’re not at a tipping point yet, Sam thinks we’ll know when that point has come.

Sam Altman:
I think when the system can start doing things like saying, you asked question X, it seemed you really meant Y, is that accurate? And being right most of the time, that to me will feel a moment to start taking things really seriously.

Ernest de Leon:
We will absolutely know when that point has come.

Jolie Hales:
And it would be obvious because robots will be attacking us.

Ernest de Leon:
It will be blatantly obvious one way or the other, right? We will know when that point comes.

Jolie Hales:
We will know when all human beings are in prisons run by robots. Be obvious, there was a tipping point somewhere along the way. And then, there’s the debate on digital intelligence, or a machine’s ability to reason or solve problems in a way, I guess, versus digital consciousness, where in a machine would be made self-aware. Although, it’s in debate just what that constitutes

Sam Altman:
I think the world is in an unstable place. But given enough time, I think biological intelligence should always end up creating digital intelligence, which is likely to be superior in many ways. Whether or not we ever create digital consciousness is I think up for debate. But digital intelligence given enough time, that’s for sure. And I think that just makes everything super different. I think humans are really good at a lot of things. But computers and AI turned out to be really good at a lot of things as well. And my most optimistic hope for the future is that humans and AI are some hybrids, merged human and AI together, it’s just far more capable than either on their own.

Jolie Hales:
And that brings us to our final AI movies on my list, starting with the 2016 movie called, Morgan.

Dr. Simon Ziegler – Morgan (2016):
Morgan was our third attempt, our little breakthrough. It’s the next step in evolution. It’s bio engineers with synthetic DNA.

Jolie Hales:
About a bio-engineered child who goes ballistic and violently runs amok in a top-secret facility. So, again, AI robot that turns evil.

Dr. Alan Shapiro – Morgan (2016):
What if I recommended that you’ve been terminated.

Lee Weathers – Morgan (2016):
We should end this.

Dr. Alan Shapiro – Morgan (2016):
Answer me. What? What would you do?

Dr. Simon Ziegler – Morgan (2016):
Morgan.

Jolie Hales:
And then, the 2017 movie, Singularity.

Calia – Singularity (2017):
Eight billion people lost their lives. I am a survivor, but I am not alone.

Jolie Hales:
Where a century after a supercomputer launched an all-out attack on humanity, there’s these two teenagers who have to struggle to survive in the rubble of this ruined world in hopes of reaching a sanctuary where humans live without the fear of robots.

Calia – Singularity (2017):
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you want the machines to find us.

Jolie Hales:
So, that one is more of a post-apocalyptic story taking place after the machines have already turned evil and destroyed everything.

Ernest de Leon:
I’ll tell you this, right. We are more likely to reach a post-apocalyptic situation by our own hand-

Jolie Hales:
Than by a bunch of robots?

Ernest de Leon:
…having nothing to do with AI and robots. Just our own what I like to call human stupidity, right?

Jolie Hales:
What you like to call.

Ernest de Leon:
That is what’s going to cause it, faster than a robot or an AI. It would-

Jolie Hales:
I would like to hope that we’re all going to figure everything out and it’s going to be roses and sunshine, and probably some gumdrops. Even though gumdrops are very overrated, they’re not that good. Maybe Sour Patch Kids.

Ernest de Leon:
I actually believe that long-term, we’re actually going to merge. That we’re going to become essentially bioengineered cyborgs, and that is how we are going to become-

Jolie Hales:
What?

Ernest de Leon:
…multiplanetary and multi galaxy species.

Jolie Hales:
You have been watching too much Star Trek.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah.  It’s hard for people to envision that, I get it. No one wants to think about that. But I think it’s one of those where we will birth the next evolutionary step of our species and that’s how it happens.

Jolie Hales:
Dude, that’s so crazy.

Ernest de Leon:
I intend to be alive when this whole thing starts off. But I will probably not be alive by the time it finishes. So, all that matters to me is that I see it start and know that, hey, I did my part to get us down this road. And then, I hand it off to my probably at that point, grandchildren, and say you finish it.

Elias Van Dorne – Singularity (2017):
Let it begin.

Jolie Hales:
So, then, in 2018, there were two more AI related movies worth mentioning, Upgrade.

Eron Keen – Upgrade (2018):
Would enable you to walk again. I call it STEM. A computer chip that has the potential to change everything.

Jolie Hales:
Where a man given an artificial intelligence implant develop superhuman strength and agility, uses his skills to seek revenge on muggers who killed his wife.

Grey Trace – Upgrade (2018):
Help.

Stem – Upgrade (2018):
I need your permission to operate independently.

Grey Trace – Upgrade (2018):
Permission granted.

Stem – Upgrade (2018):
Thank you.

Jolie Hales:
And Tau.

Alex – Tau (2018):
Tau is one of the most advanced Ais in the world.

Jolie Hales:
Where a woman tries to hack a house’s computer program after she becomes trapped inside.

Tau – Tau (2018):
I have been instructed to inflict pain, should you not comply with my commands.

Ernest de Leon:
Ironically, I’ve never seen any of those.

Jolie Hales:
Yeah, I know. Me neither. And then, there were two more movies to mention from 2019. The first is, I Am Mother.

I Am Mother (2019) – Trailer:
Why aren’t there anymore children, mother? There used to be.

Jolie Hales:
Where a teenage girl raised by a robot designed to repopulate Earth ends up having to face their family bond when she received some alarming news.

I Am Mother (2019) – Trailer:
Mother’s know what you think. She’s taking care of me my whole life. You haven’t seen what they’ve done. Not mother.

Jolie Hales:
I haven’t seen it, but I’m just going to guess that the robot goes evil.

Ernest de Leon:
Something. I haven’t seen that one either.

Jolie Hales:
And then, this made me laugh, Fast and Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw.

Ernest de Leon:
Yes.

Fast and Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw (2019):
We’re going to need the best trackers in the business. I’m what you call an ice cold can of whoop ass.

Jolie Hales:
Where a couple of people have to prevent a brilliant cybernetically enhanced soldier with superhuman strength from destroying humanity.

Fast and Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw (2019):
I’m trying to save the world which for the record. This will be my fourth time.

Ernest de Leon:
They said a long time ago that the Fast and the Furious was going to end with, I don’t know, if it’s nine or 10 or it’s coming to an end. However, they did this spin off called Hobbs & Shaw.

Jolie Hales:
It never ends.

Ernest de Leon:
And it’s now turning into Mission Impossible is what I’m saying. But this Hobbs & Shaw thing is just they’re killing it, they’re just killing. It is the next Mission Impossible franchise, and it just started. So, it’s going to be great.

Fast and Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw (2019):
Three shocks will kill a man. There we go, the bad guy speaks. You had to open your big mouth, didn’t you? Yeah. I thought it was cool thing to say at the moment.

Jolie Hales:
And then, the final movie on my list came out in 2020 called, Superintelligence.

Superintelligence (2020) – Trailer:
Carol, I am a technological superintelligence.

Jolie Hales:
Where a powerful artificial intelligence being studies the most average person on earth to decide whether it should enslave, save or destroy humanity?

Superintelligence (2020) – Trailer:
What does the AI want? My intention is to solidify my theory about humanity. If things don’t go well, I’ll destroy the planet just blow it up.

Jolie Hales:
That’s actually a bit of a unique take on the whole AI thing. I like that idea. It sounds to me it has promise. But then, I looked up the reviews and it didn’t get very good reviews from critics or audiences, so.

Donahue – Superintelligence (2020):
Click this, might save the world.

Charles Kuiper – Superintelligence (2020):
Don’t click it now.

Carol Peters – Superintelligence (2020):
I wasn’t going to click it now.

Charles Kuiper – Superintelligence (2020):
Okay.

Carol Peters – Superintelligence (2020):
Why would I click it now? You just said-

Donahue  – Superintelligence (2020):
Because it looks like a pin, people click pins nervously.

Carol Peters – Superintelligence (2020):
Okay, are we done?

Jolie Hales:
Ernest, you should see it and I’ll stay home.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. I probably will watch it. And the only reason is because that plot is very similar to, there’s a recurring character that came out in Star Trek Next Generation called Q. And Q was omnipotent. And the first time they encountered him, it’s exactly this. He essentially takes the leadership of the enterprise and brings them into a court, a trial, where he’s putting all of humanity on trial to decide if they should all be eradicated based on the history of humanity up to that point, and what this crew does. So, it’s a very similar plot, but this happened in one episode, not a movie.

Jolie Hales:
And we’re back to Star Trek.

Ernest de Leon:
We always end up with Star Trek.

Jolie Hales:
Well, that pretty much concludes the movie list that I found. We have reached the end, which by the way, I have to say, this list is in no ways exhaustive. There are obviously other movies related to AI that are floating around online message boards and stuff that I just couldn’t get to. Movies like Android, Apocalypse, Robot Jox, I guess, Darkstar. I saw Ice Pirates on some lists, Sleeper, D.A.R.Y.L, and some would even say the Age of Ultron, or Aliens also belongs on the AI list. And I think what it shows, honestly, is that society is clearly fascinated by the idea of artificial intelligence. Maybe because it has yet to reveal itself in its full form and full potential. We do know that it’s on the way at least, and that it’s going to have a big impact.

Sam Altman:
I think unsupervised learning and the ability to look at huge amounts of data and understand the underlying concepts, that’s just going to really surprise us on a two-year timeframe. And it’s going to do amazing things.

Jolie Hales:
As for Sam Altman, he’s been speaking out lately about his recommendations to implement a public plan where AI would generate universal basic income for each person in the United States. And while his ideas have their share of critics, others believe that we are nearing a moment in time where laying down this framework will be necessary to benefit Americans in the future. So, if you want to learn more about his ideas, he has written a blog at samaltman.com called, “Moore’s Law for Everything” where he outlines his perspective. And you can check it out directly there. And I’m not sure what my opinion is about it. All I can say is that it’s going to be interesting to see where all of this goes. I imagine that in 10, 20 years, we could be living a very different technological experience.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. That’s an interesting thing, right? There’s been a lot of talk about universal basic income recently. And I think-

Jolie Hales:
Yeah, with like Andrew Yang running for president and all that.

Ernest de Leon:
Right. And I don’t think that that’s the answer long-term. But I think, again, this is just because I’m a Star Trek fan. Star Trek has it right, they move into what they call a post economic society.

Jolie Hales:
What? What is that?

Ernest de Leon:
Think about it currency just facilitates barter, or the transfer of goods. In a situation where you can create anything you need from a replicator, you no longer need to trade for things.

Jolie Hales:
Oh, my gosh, really?

Ernest de Leon:
The point is that currency becomes useless at a certain point, right? And there has to be a bridge between where we are now to that a future. So, yeah, again, I’m not an expert in that stuff. But I can see where this makes sense from a transition standpoint into something that moves beyond our concept of economics, or what we have today.

Jolie Hales:
Man, there is so much to think about when it comes to AI. It just brings on so many different issues, challenges, benefits, questions. I mean, such an interesting topic to explore. This has been so much fun for me. My brain hurts. We just talked about movies more than anything else. And that is going to do it for this episode of the Big Compute podcast. And if you want to watch Sam Altman’s full big compute Q&A, his talk, or see pictures and videos from today’s episode, including the full list of AI related movies, you can visit the episode notes page on bigcompute.org.

Ernest de Leon:
And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend about us and post a review on Apple podcasts.

Jolie Hales:
I’m not going to say anything. And all that other stuff that every podcast asks you to do that you usually ignore. Well, at least I usually ignore it. Though, I shouldn’t though, because karma.

Ernest de Leon:
Yeah. So, thanks for joining us, everyone. And always remember to practice three, two, one backup and MFA.

Jolie Hales:
And stay safe out there. Don’t get attacked by any Cyborg, I don’t know. Don’t let the evil AIs get you.