In June 2022, a text exchange between the US software engineer Blake Lemoine and Google’s experimental AI chatbot LaMDA went viral when Lemoine came forward with claims that LaMDA had achieved sentience. Combining intriguing moments from the chat’s transcript, interviews with experts such as David Chalmers, and archival footage, this short film offers a refreshingly sober look at the state of AI, as well as the massive gaps in our understanding of consciousness. In doing so, the US director Garson Ormiston makes the case that sensationalist headlines conjuring fears of a techno-dystopian near-future overshadow more material issues over AI ethics that already exist – including how they reflect human biases, and the many ways in which they’re capable of manipulating users.
Director: Garson Ormiston
Producers: Allison Schroeder, Isabella Danzi
Director of Photography: Pete Quandt
Website: BBC Reel
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Death
Even in modern secular societies, belief in an afterlife persists. Why?
9 minutes
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Nature and landscape
Take a serene hike through an ancient forest, inspired by a Miyazaki masterpiece
6 minutes
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Design and fashion
The mundane becomes mesmerising in this deep dive into segmented displays
14 minutes
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Physics
A song of ice, fire and jelly – exploring the physics and history of the trumpet
9 minutes
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Spirituality
Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan
6 minutes
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Thinkers and theories
Photographs offer a colonialist window to the past – one that must be challenged
14 minutes
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Animals and humans
An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’
5 minutes
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Mathematics
How a curious question about colouring maps changed mathematics forever
9 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
The world turns vivid, strange and philosophical for one plane crash survivor
16 minutes