Last night we watched ex machina an interesting slightly disturbing film about the creation of an "intelligent" robot which can pass for human. The Turing test is a well known AI test which is based on interacting with a computer on a screen and not being able to tell whether it is a human or a computer. Of course as this is a Holywood film the robot has a female form. What I found interesting was that during the film we start to root for the robot as "she" is effectively a prisoner in the testing facility. But in my view the only reason we identify with it is because the machine has been given a human form. If the robot was just a square metal box or an insect like form I'm not sure we would have the same sympathy whatever the quality of its dialogue. I'm not sure how far AI will go in being able to develop "artificial humans" but I think we should avoid giving them human form. In the long term it is probably healthier if machines are always recognizable for what they are.
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