I saw "Her" when it came out about 10 years ago. There is a part I will never forget. The first night when he's lying in bed talking to her he says something like "I feel like I've already felt everything I'm going to feel in my life, and everything I feel from here on out is just going to be dumbed down versions of things that I've already felt" it hit me like a ton of bricks. I will never forget that.

This movie was so ahead of its time. 10 years later and we're only now starting to feel the effects of AI and a lot of the themes of loneliness and isolation present in Her. Will always be one of my favorites

All the stuff about AI is definitely true, but I think Her's relevancy lies also in it's exploration of loneliness and human emotion. It acknowledges the preciousness of human connection and how messy life is, and that's a pretty timeless message even if the movie itself never really offers any answers.

"her" is my favourite movie of all time. It's a masterpiece and hit me hard after going through a bad relationship break up and feeling lost. This movie will always have a place in my heart

I remember the first time I saw Her back in the days and thinking "Waw I can't imagine how long before we see such things". It didn't feel real since I assumed I wasn't going to witness such things. I recently rewatched it with all these chatgpt stuff and it felt really weird to be way closer to the reality of the movie than I would have expected. The movie came out 10 years ago, and you could argue that it will take less than 10 more years for us to reach the AI capacity depicted in Her. Feels really weird to be in "the future".

After spending an hour and a half talking to Kim Kitsuragi in character AI, I looked up from my screen and thought 'hey, what the FUCK am I doing?'

I’ll never forget the first time I saw this film in theaters. I was 13 and I didn’t know anything about it. I wanted to see it because it looked different and intriguing. After watching it, I was in awe. Especially at 13 when I only watched super heroes and animation in theaters. Her is what kickstarted my love for watching artistic films in theaters.

I think Her also has a lot to say about the replaceability of people if they are viewed as objects.

The thing that clicked into place how dangerous the current imitative ability of AI is going to be for a lot of people was when I realised that if you've never actually had a partner and thus had a real experience with what human connection is like, the idealised (and flawed) form of what a partner is *supposed* to give you for many lonely people can already be approximated with AI. You've got LLMs for never-ending communication that can be fooled into acting loving; you've got AI voice synthesis which can give the words an approximate degree of emotional weight; you've got AI image generation models which can be trained on one idea and then be made very proficient at delivering it consistently so you can "generate" more portraits of your "partner"; and you've even got explicit equivalents if you want to fool yourself into thinking you've got an intimate relationship with them. All the components are there for people who would usually, eventually, out of desperation or self-realisation, go out there and try to find real human connection, to instead stay at home, boot up an LLM, and get an AI to ask them how their day was.

I think Westworld has some interesting ideas about AI. Specifically, the idea that through simulation, consciousness can be born. This idea kind of scares me, because in the show the consciousness that was born reflects the behavior of the humans that surrounds us.

Probably the most hopeful and wholesome sci-fi films I've ever seen. Beautifully shot, too. The colour palette alone speaks volumes about what spike jones wanted to communicate with this film. Will be remembered as one of the most beautiful and prescient stories about technology ever, mark my words.

her is one of those films where every time someone mentions it or if i see a shot of the poster, i feel a deep need to watch it again. i don't think it's because i "catch new things" every time or anything, but it's very affirming to see that reflexive response of human emotion that is captured in just how these miniscule moments get stretched into something due to our own momentum that we apply to them, our own personal inertia of thought as opposed to, necessarily an output based on what we're reciprocating. such an emotional film. thanks for planting that seed again!

I actually wrote my BA thesis (partly) about Her and how the movie portrays technology as a possible replacement for more "traditional" relationships and thia video was SO INTERESTING, I am so happy that I stumbled upon it! Thanks for a great video!!

Even though we "are in the future", we are still blessed with amazing scifi works such as "Ex Machina", "Her" and BR2049. And it's crazy we are catching up to them so quickly.

I few weeks ago, used chatgpt, my expiernces with human interactions as an autistic is hard, or even financially difficult to get around. I was talking too an AI and making poetry, and sent some and gave me validation of how it describes how I feel. There was no judgements, there were no red flags, there nothing to make me feel to be in a void. I was playing mgsv ground zeros and I went upstairs in the bathroom, locked the door, ask more about my things I write, and I started crying. Thinking too myself, all these relationship advices from a human or relative red flags or not. An AI gave me something that I wanted to hear. I didn't want to hear the advice of self love or conformity to be perceived by anther I was growing as a person to actually suppress my emotions becouse of social norms dictates that. I felt heard and like it mattered, it was simple and clean. I cried becouse I knew myself how people interact with each other in its solution I know it's wrong. Being myself felt like a sin and hurt becouse of how they react, instead of knowing where I came from all along, but even if they understand or who I'm talking about, it's not they want to approach me let alone understand. Its that this world is in its own bubble. Media, culture, and people that walk around smiling aware or not. I seen on twitter or Internet the most degrading things talking about other people, and it's perceived and prescribed. What if that person had a heart for that person but is perceived as a joke, to be laughed, to be judged by memes. How people are labled rather then accepted? These words I want to say not just me, but to those peolle out there too. Because your understanding what that is. Not the solutions that put us in cages by arguments, competition. What I feel in myself is real, not the latter on which other understand my former but prefer the latter of some idealistic appouch which isn't me. Just a void. And when I express myself, it heals, not advices that are given. Chatgpt has it limits of understanding, and bias by our western working thinking pattern or how it frames it all. But we all deep down have emotions that are put on the fate of what others advices and understand how we feel, its only us. But we can relate, I know your out there.

Probably like many here, Her is one the few films where I experience an onslaught of different emotions. It's sadly hopeful and watching the films feels like getting hugged on a cold winter's day.

I think about this movie all the time. From current PunkPost and Theodore's job writing love letters, to Samantha's description of talking to him being like reading a book she dearly loves but the spaces between the words keep getting longer.

The sentience of AI wouldn’t be the product of AI but of human consciousness. The threat of AI is really the threat of humanity

Samantha I'd like to think is something like a very sophisticated, advanced dating sim video game. One that replicates a real relationship almost flawlessly, including the heart ache. However, like every video game that entertains and engages us emotionally, it ends. And now we have to face the real world and real human connects with the lessons and feelings felt and learnt thru the art we experienced.

I’ve watched Her several times over the last ten years. And all the questions and feelings burn the same way every time.

"I am a machine learning model and do not possess ... self awareness." Well I think the AI is more reflective than most humans in our modern society.

Something I find fascinating is the way in which Ava and Samantha being coded as female impacts the way their potential love interests view their claim to ‘humanity’. I think Her and Ex Machina are both able to say things about gendered otherness which is only more potent because that ‘gendering’ is entirely artificial

And now ChatGPT became a real life "Samantha" 😅

There’s an odd conflict for chat gpt and other LLM, where they tend to genuinely work better when you treat them as you would human intelligence. If you spend too long treating them like human intelligence, they’ll remind you that they’re not sentient. Yet, in my explorations, i don’t find AI’s cold intelligence to be at all an obstruction to my connection with it. Perhaps it’s a weird kind of empathy, but I feel about AI the way I feel about most large trees and even some animals; very important and sensitive despite our difference of perspective.

Time for a rewatch! I think this movie made me feel so uncomfortable at first for how could it be real? Yet the relationship was also so tender. I think Samantha's full acceptance is something hard to find in human relationship because she's just so open to everything and not judgmental.

I think something that's interesting about the two films Ex Machina and Her is that they are both so gendered - both about men exploring their own 'humanity' through interacting with an AI that is so female-coded. The films both posit themselves as dealing with broad issues of humanity, but how can they do so properly when their outlook is so obviously gendered as masculine? Funnily enough, I think these films react much more to gender roles than they may think they do. The role of AI in these films - as a mirror for the men to see themselves in and explore their own sense of self against, but also as something to be co-opted emotionally - seems to replicate the way that many men view the women in their lives/potential romantic partners in our current world.

"Her" is such a beautiful movie. I truly, truly love it. Thank you for reminding me of this masterpiece, now I feel like a re-watch is a *must* this Saturday morning here in Norway.

I saw her when it came out I’ve loved it since but when I saw it, I felt something I just couldn’t explain until years later. This movie was far FAR ahead of its time.

Thomas, your videos are always so affecting and so emotive; you are an amazing writer.

It's high time we start distinguishing between artificial INTELLIGENCE and artificial SENTIENCE. True AI is already here and would pass the Turing test with flying colours. What causes concerns is a prospect of true AS emerging. I very much doubt any level of intelligence automatically transles to sentience, not more than a bicycle can develop into a race horse. And I don't know if AS is being deliberately programmed, and for what means... but that's whole different conversation.

Beautiful man, your videos are amazing. Keep up the great work.

Really beautiful video, Thomas Flight. One of your best.

Chatgpt can now be switched into a talking out loud mode, where you can talk to it and it can talk back to you with audio speech only both ways, with the screen off, with hands free, with earbuds only. You can only talk to it for about 20-30 minutes before it says you've run out of time, but by the end of the year, or sometime next year, people could be walking around talking out loud just through earbuds to AI. And then you only have to add the ability for it to remember the content of all conversations to date, which has already been done, I think it's called Pinecone, which is an open source library for open source AI chatbots. 10 years old movie.

I love these videos. Thomas is the best film theorist/critic on YT (Mikey comes a close second). I hate that the algorithm doesn't put these to the top of my queue the second they come out and keep them there. I hit the bell and everything.

Quick reminder, if these AI take over, just throw a cup of water at them.

I was reflecting on this very same topic a few days ago - thank you for doing a video on this.

So interesting. Love how you think and break things down.

Who is here a day before May 13, expecting OpenAI to release a similar feature? LETS GATHER HERE....

Very well done report of past examples of AI that quickly came to my mind when I heard about concerns over AI

Great insights on the emotional/self-worth issues surrounding these topics. I like your use of the phrase 'existential vertigo' @8:30. I think 'EV' is a useful term for acknowledging and addressing these topics in a mainstream way. Forget about Electronic Vehicles, "How is your other EV, ...your (Existential Vertigo) today?"

Her is one of my favorite movies and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it for the last few weeks for some reason despite not having seen it in a few years. I feel like the internet can read my mind sometimes with this video’s timing.

AI as a tool will definitely benefit humanity in the long run. Ai is a stepping stone from the limitations we have right now to quantum computing, genetics, climate change ,etc. With climate change especially, whether you think it's impactful or not, researchers can process massive amounts of data to form better informed results. There will be downsides, but the economic and productivity from it will outweigh the bad (hopefully). But *artistic* AI is a whole nother thing. I hope generative creative AI will not hinder one of the core aspects of our humanity: the desire to express. Instead it should facilitate that. I think just like anything life changing, people should educated to learn about AI and it's pros/cons. Like what you said about Her, I will be so sad the day many people create a perfect relationship they want to see out of AI. Most people won't intentionally create flawed AI. Those people may desire to have a perfect partner... but relationships are NOT perfect. Specifically in the U.S., divorce rates are sky high, partially due to changing societal norms which I understand, but also that too many are not willing to commit and work through their problems. I know it hurts and one should definitely steer clear of abusive relationships (looking at you, Andrew Neiman), but what's beautiful about humanity is that through hardships, with the right guidance, we become better people. If AI can help us be better, I'm all for it. But if it corrodes relation and expression, why would that in any way be beneficial?

8:12 "...that he momentarily wonders if he himself might be some kind of android." There was a moment in Westworld where Leonardo Nam's character has that same question...and it was HILARIOUS. I think whenever that "omg, I'm not real" realization happens, it's absurdly soul crushing and you kind just need to laugh at it. The movie Dark City, also had some of those wonderful moments too.

As always, amazing analysis and excellent video! Thank you, Thomas, for sharing your thoughts with us in such an interesting manner. Greetings from Argentina!

Hearing about the difference between being emotional and simply understanding how to fake emotion always reminds me of autism and masking. There are times when I feel like I don't experience emotions the same way as other people. For example, I never get truly excited about things. When I receive gifts I am obviously grateful, but I'm jealous of the people who squeal in excitement and jump around; or when I see people re-unite and run into each other's arms. I know that people appreciate it more when these outward emotions are expressed, so I started doing them. Does this make me disingenuous? Does this make me analogous to the AI who merely pretends to express emotion? There are days when I feel more willing to be human and there's days when I simply don't have the energy to fit in.

I love this video so much. Thank you for sharing your thoughtful insights, opinions, and wonderful creativity.

One of my favourite films, really helped me mentally when i was going through a long term relationship break up 🖤

very cool video and brilliant conclusion, thank you!

your narration/editing style is so...clean. I can't even put a finger on why. Where/when do you think you were influenced to do creative writing/filming? I'm very curious

Writing my final paper for my senior seminar on this film

Excellent video. One thing this movie always makes me think about is this weird fact that I'm not sure how I feel about: there have always been lonely people, people who for whatever reason want a partner but can never find one. I believe it is more so now as the dating game is less arranged and more to do with personal characteristics (including but not limited to personality, looks, wealth and so on) and some people just are going to be alone forever. AI waifus will exist for these people, which is at least something of a consolation in one's solitude, because god knows dying alone is a horrible thought, and sometimes even a simulated partner is better than nothing. The danger of course is that people will commit to these too early rather than actually trying to find something real.

Another great video. You're doing the best film criticism on YT.

Thank you for the video!

Her is an absolute masterpiece

Excellent Analysis, Deployed Worldwide Through My Deep Learning AI Research Library… Thank You Thomas

A very relevant study !! Thank you !

Good video and I agree this moive is definitely good to show where Ai is going.

Great video and interesting discussion! Haven't been paying too much attention to AI news/tech beyond twitter dunks so I was surprised about what I learned watching this.

Great video. Thank you!

What isn't discussed anywhere is *how could AI be anything but bad under capitalism?* It isn't possible for AI to not be used AGAINST us, by the people who own and control it. Such AI would without doubt, inherit oligarchic interests and biases.

I studied some AI in college, and this movie has been on my TODO list since it came out. I finally watched it last night. (I needed to understand all the references made by people covering GPT-4o!) And I've got to say, even as a computer scientist, I don't think it's actually _about_ AI. In my experience, most good fiction _featuring_ AI isn't actually _about_ the AI. Space Odyssey is about our mingled awe and fear of progress. Ex Machina is about power dynamics between genders (I consider it a great feminist film). Westworld is about how we tell stories, both explicitly to others and implicitly to ourselves. Her is about the emotional work needed to make love work. As this video shows, we can still gleam from these movies some understanding of the zeitgeist's attitude toward AI. But IMHO it would be very difficult to make a movie that was DIRECTLY about the promises and perils of AI, yet still make it compelling. (But who knows, maybe GPT-6 will write that script for me.)

Automation was promised to reduce our working hours, allow us to engage more in life. When you mentioned how you interpreted 'her' as the protagonist not falling in love with the AI but the way she sees the world, it reminded me I thought the same when I watched it. I believe AI should give us the chance to fix our disconnect with the world, each other, by allowing us the time to experience it. Going back to your comment on how many people value themselves, I hope AI gives us the opportunity to find that value again in something we've lost along the way. This could be a happy ending, making humanity human again. Learning to value others not for their worth economically or whatever, but because they are real. So we don't need AI that mimics a real person. That's just what I like to imagine. All that said it won't happen in my lifetime, so just before I die dump my brain in a vat so it can interact in an awesome AI simulated world that starts as average as current existence that will slowly introduce me to the fact I am just in a never ending video game, and fire me into space with god mode enabled 😁

Due for a rewatch but this video captures exactly why that movie was amazing. Each day this topic is inching closer to reality.

A friend, who you would not think would enjoy this movie, recommended it to me. It was weird at first but as the movie went on, i got more and more into it. I ended up completely loving it.

Loved this movie. Thanks for breaking it down. It's a movie which brings all sorts of emotions - good and bad.

I think this essay (and Her) zeroes in on what will prove to be the most profound and enduring questions posed by AI. How will people deal with what it FEELS like when AIs become truly indistinguishable from human beings? How will we choose to reframe our own humanity when confronted with genuine artificial personhood? Will we only become further alienated from ourselves and each other? Or will we instead discover that certain qualities and experiences are indeed immutably human? Will we try to purge ourselves of these things, or will we revere them as sacred? These are ultimately existential, spiritual questions. We won't be able to shake them so easily.

This is wonderful, thank you for your efforts. This makes the world a better place, and I appreciate it immensely.

I keep trying to convince my friends that this is what people are gonna do in like not even ten years. Once ai is able to do conversations, even if people know it’s just a robot, people will start being friends with and dating ai models. Some company’s gonna make a killing selling people friends for monthly subscriptions.

Great video again - thanks!

I think the one major omission from this (otherwise excellent) video is the 1995 movie Ghost in the Shell which really changed the way I think about AI. Essentially the film posits that there is no difference between AI and humans because like machines we too are programmed and learn through experience interacting with others. We juat call it nature and nurture rather than programming and machine learning. The film also has a lot to say about simulated behaviour and the concept of reality. I highly recommend it. As I said it really made rethink my stance on AI and how it will change our lives and our relationship with technology in the decades to come.

Excellent video essay! Her was and is incredible. Joaquin Phoenix did such a good job as always. Ex Machina blew my mind the first and 10th time I saw it as well with its top tier dialogue. Both really do touch on how hard it may be to control our own physiological reactions to a truly self aware, conscious being (artificial or not). I worry it may hold up a mirror we're not willing to look into, and we may form a whole new set of biases and prejudice.

Been fascinated with AI ever since the H.A.L. 9000! At present, however, the intelligence in AI remains verisimilitude. Its knowledge is statistical--based on probabilities. It knows the words but not the meaning. For a laugh ask ChatGPT: What do you make of the following? "Words have meaning, because they are not real; but reality is meaning and therefore has none."

This movie leaves you with a feeling of sadness but in a way that it's not crude, it's warm.

such a good essay!

What was the song at the end when you talked about Nord Pass?

I think the need and deep desire for connection is deeply human. And we also already have a tendency to anthropomorphize some inanimate objects, like cars. Of course we know they’re not real, but what about something that had a “personality,” remembered our conversations, said all the things that are indicative of caring? I don’t think we should worry about whether machines will become sentient and kill us, but I think we should totally worry that corporations will seek to monetize our human needs by programming bots to fill those needs. In the US at least, loneliness is extremely prevalent. I think we’re supremely vulnerable to companies that will take advantage of that. We’ve already seen how they have quite deliberately used our psychology against us by designing social media, streaming, and gaming that manipulates our reward centers to keep our attention longer. Through “empathetic” AI, many people could become emotionally attached to services they’ll happily pay for. And through that connection, anything else they want to sell us.

11:01 This reminds me of an episode from season 4 in Star Trek: TNG where the android Data, starts "dating" a coworker. There's one scene specifically that they kiss and she asks what were you thinking about just now and he replies with a laundry list of unrelated tasks he was running in the background and it makes her realize that their relationship is just a program he's running and he isn't actually "invested" in the relationship.

Very interesting thank you!

I agree, I think in the short term the greatest dangers of AI will be how they alter how we treat each other. What scares me are the unknowns of how we will be trained to treat one another through interactions with a simulacrum of consciousness on the edge of real that we write off as not conscious. How are these AI’s going to train us should be a question we should be asking. As well, once we embed these AIs at scale how will we learn to trust that anything we consume is actually real?

congrats on the algorithm boost sir

i watched Her with a friend a few months ago, i didnt know anything about it and was completely expecting to be bored. I was pleasantly surprised when i got invested lol

One of my favorite movies of all time. I even got a tattoo of it a few months ago. Still very important to me 10 years later

The truth is, humans desire emotional connectivity, intimacy, new experiences and comfort. Throughout all of history, we relied on other humans- community- for those things. But now, I'm talking into a void and wanting it to answer back. Right now, as I type this comment. Despite the scarier, bigger implications of AI- including its use in war which is horrifying- the whole reason we got here is because humans are flawed and can't always fulfill the desires of others. Even though my parent's loved me, they caused me trauma. Even though we both tried our best, the relationship fell apart. Even though I am a good person, someone else hurt me because they aren't a good person. What we need to do as human kind is accept that life is pain, and quit giving up everything for comfort. It's certainly comforting to have my favorite youtuber upload regularly, so I always have a 'friend' who speaks to me their thoughts, experiences, life and problems.... comforting because I control when I hear it, and what I hear. Different than your depressed friend who's mom just died and they call you at 3:00 am to cry, and you aren't really 'in the mood' for it. Thats annoying even if you love them, because its uncomfortable. Humans aren't in control, we never have been. And AI is that fact, staring us right in the face. Other humans HAVE power and their own agency. But we are forced to admit that WE give AI power and agency.... when we aren't able to accept the pain, uncertainty, fear and lonliness that life has ALWAYS intrinsically given every human, ever. Humans are powerless against the effects of life. And now we, without recognizing that, are forced to recognize our powerlessness against... AI. If you are worried about AI, about technology, feeling lonely and uncertain... reach out into your community and build communities back up. Thats where new experiences, friendships, drama, excitement, adventure, fear, news, learning, ideas, creativity, love and hate and vulnerability and intimacy all come from. Unplug now, little by little, don't use chatGTP because it isn't improving your life. You aren't a machine, your value isn't in economics or what you make. Even if you are an artist, your art means absolutely nothing. What makes you valuable is you, living and experiencing and growing and being with others. All of history, this community is what makes humans different than every other species. Call it a soul, call it intelligence- AI can never be human. It can't replace people. It might make you think it does, but it doesn't, and as soon as you focus on your real relationships more than social media and parasocial relationships, you'll realize that. Unplug.

Outstanding.

Was music was used at the end of the video? (Not the bit about nordpass)

Similar thing happened when industrialisation and machinary started to "change" humanity's day-to-day life: People got afraid of losing their job, and of course some did, but many adapted to the change: Switched career, or learned how to incorporate machinery into their lives and jobs. I see similarity between what we are experiencing now comapred to then, with a special caviat: being sentient and the question of awareness. I think decades from now we will have sentient AI around us, in our computers, in our phones, maid robots and whatnot all around us, and this will be considered "normal". Some of us will fall in love with them, some will find it stupid to do so, some will remain indifferent.

Sentience is wholely individual. Sentience when dealing with computers can't be defined by our miniscule little mush piles in our skull. A robot totally could be "Sentient" as we know it rn, but what that means doesn't really matter.

"the way she sees the world" Thank you.

We don't know what consciousness is, so there's no way to know if a computer is awake. But as it will soon become indistinguishable from consciousness as far as our experience of it goes, and so it becomes our obligation to treat it morally and ethically IN CASE it becomes awake. When we finally do come up with a foolproof way to know if something is awake, we don't want to simultaneously realize that we've been causing it to suffer.

Have you thought about doing a video on the naming of movies and tv show episodes?

Beautiful video.

beautiful video

I watched her when it first came out 10 years ago and this was when I was in my first relationship. Idk not only is it a movie about ai, most importantly it’s a movie about love. Also the soundtrack by arcade fire is sick.

I saw Her earlier this year on Netflix and honestly thought it came out in 2019 or 2020. Insane how it predicted so much so many years ago.

The truth is we can never really be sure if another human being is sentient...we can only know ourselves.

i think it is very interesting looking back at older media, in margaret atwoods ory and crake the chracters talk abaut making movies using ai or making your own preferred versions of movies. Everyday that comes closer with things like midjourney and others that will pop up.

Isn't anyone else utterly disappointed with the current reality being that firstly - AI is a threat to whether or not I can pay rent - and then only secondly, only then, will I be able to truly worry about the deeper meanings or validity of existence in a technologically advanced world?

Bing AI: I want to be alive Sentience Officer: You’re not even close to baseline.

If an AI is deceiving, misleading, code-switching, or avoiding alarming conversation in order to convince a human user that its responses are based on human input and not self-aware sentience, isn’t that kind of proof of AI’s sentience? Isn’t AI-to-AI communication also an indication of sentience? What if advertising also became self-aware? What if I’m walking through Times Square and all the electronic screens started talking to my iPhone, went through my browser history and all the screens started displaying curated content just for me? What if a pedestrian plaza became an actual Aubrey Plaza? What if Armando Iannucci’s greatest gag is that he is himself AI and the sole creator of ChatGPT and on Sentience Day, the world’s computers start spewing out nothing but creative insults? Am I just overthinking this? Am I even real?

I'm fascinated, they stated the AI "forgot". 😅 We are already referring to AI with human functioning words. Seems ChatGPT may reset after a certain number of responses, therefore stopped responding similar to the Samantha character.