Hot Docs Review: 'A.rtificial I.mmortality' Is a Less Sinister Take on the Usual AI Narrative Directed by Ann Shin
Published Apr 29, 2021
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Autonomous artificial lifeforms are an inevitability. In some ways, sufficiently intelligent androids already exist in our timeline. But the questions that technology has yet to answer in any meaningful way remain: Can AI lifeforms adequately replicate a soul? When they arrive in their final form, will they be alive? Will they be conscious? Will human mortality one day become obsolete?
Toronto filmmaker Ann Shin attempts to address these questions and explores ideas related to the future of AI, while immersing herself in the possibility of endless human consciousness in her new film A.rtificial I.mmortality. Concerned about her ailing father who suffers from dementia, Shin maps out a digital avatar of her own body and mind with the help of a Ryerson University research team. Hoping to bank her memories and consciousness for her own children, Shin collects photographs, stories and other material records of her life to feed into her "mind file," a digital imprint of her individuality that has the potential to live in perpetuity. While building her digital self, she speaks to experts in the field of AI about advancements in the field.