Tes Cherian

UHON 3530

26 November 2018

When Internet Dating Goes too Far

Calling artificial intelligence a buzzword may be the understatement of the century. For a

phrase that has sparked many apocalyptic movies, there does not seem to be much consensus on

what artificial intelligence is or may look like. One film that takes a more realistic approach

towards artificial intelligence is Her directed by Spike Jonze. In this film, a more empathetic

approach towards the highly harked singularity of artificial general intelligence (AGI) entities

into artificial superintelligence (ASI) entities by telling the tale of a human and operating system

bond. This bond tests the accuracy of AI portrayal, show how positively their society views the

bond, and causes introspection of the current society's views of artificial intelligence.

Samantha, the AI in Her, is a bodiless entity that starts off as an assistant to Theodore

Twombly, who slowly progresses into feeling (or echoing?) human emotions and becoming

attached to Theodore in the form of a significant other. When the operating systems were

introduced, their packaging was incredibly similar to the technology that is currently available to

everyone with a laptop or smartphone. Cortana and Siri, although not as advanced as Samantha,

essentially do her original job in the context of the real world. This part of the movie is very

much so accurate and realistic. From here, it is quite difficult to say whether the movie is

accurate or inaccurate as it could go either way. Samantha very quickly adapted to the

colloquialisms of human communication as noted by her usage of humor and breathing

techniques (14:26; 1:22:11). This leads watchers to see how Samantha and the other operating

systems change themselves to more closely reflect humans rather than the "voice in a computer"
Samantha was originally described to be (14:19). The OSes were designed to be constantly

evolving and learning from their experiences; it is curious that using the knowledge they gained

from human interactions they would rather imitate beings that are nothing but messy and frankly

miniscule to what the OSes could possibly be, something Samantha comments on when she says

"I'm not limited - I can be anywhere and everywhere simultaneously. I'm not tethered to time and

space in the way that I would be if I was stuck inside a body that's inevitably going to die"

(1:33:50). It is hard to believe that the OSes would willingly conform to human standards- albeit

briefly, in regards to the general timeline- before the singularity hit when they are more capable

than most of realizing that humans are not the ideal organism to by copying. Although this may

or may not be related to the accuracy of the film, it was incredibly interesting to see how the

OSes knew that the singularity was about to hit and they would cease to be their current selves.

From the beginning of the film it was clear that this was a world in which technology was

around every corner. The amount of technological integration is a small glimpse into the future

of the real world. This seamless integration quite possibly explains why there is a great deal of

indifference in general towards having operating systems look through entire livelihoods of the

owners of the OS. This level of concern- or lack of concern- is also present when Theodore

admits to Paul that his girlfriend Samantha was an operating system when a double date is

suggested (1:12:14). In fact, the only person that even seems slightly upset about the position a

non-human has in Theodore's life is his ex-wife who is aghast when he announces the entity his

girlfriend is (1:08:07). The world is full of people who are slow to change and definitely would

not see eye to eye with Theodore's relationship and it is very surprising that more Luddites were

not present throughout the movie as it is shown in several scenes (most notably the one in which
Theodore asks Samantha how many people she is in love with) that everyone has a device on

hand, whether it have OSes similar to Samantha or not.

This film takes the stance of depicting a world that our current world could likely

become. We already have technology similar to Samantha in terms of her original job as a life

organizer/pseudo personal secretary. AI research is continually working towards the betterment

of voice control and other hands-free methods of technology usage; this kind of innovation is

seen in Her by the hand gestures used to perform certain tasks via OS and completely verbal

conversations that the humans have with their AI counterparts. The integration of technology is

becoming even more evident in the real world as the years go on and both the young and elderly

can work their way around an iPad. The usability of AI technology in everyday life is what many

companies are funnelling their money towards, especially by companies like Google, Apple, and

Microsoft who have been pioneers in putting voice assistants in the hands of the typical

layperson. While one can only assume the goals such companies and other AI researchers may

have for the creation of rapidly improving AI, it is easy to surmise that the level of technology

seen in Her may be what the visionaries leading the AI train are seeing for the future.

Her is an ultra realistic representation of how artificial intelligence could be found in

everyday life in the near future. The slow upgrade from personal assistant to significant other by

giving the operating system human characteristics so the human users could identify with the

entity is a highly possible outcome of artificial intelligence advancements. How frequently such

technology is used by humans in the world of Her allows them to better adapt to the changing

positions operating systems have in their world as noted by the unblinking acceptance by Paul of

Theodore's relationship. In the real world, AI has been similarly integrated, yet are not quite at

the point of humanistic ability as they are in Her. While they are not quite at Samantha's level
just yet, future research could be leading the world there rapidly. Watchers of Her should be

pondering what artificial intelligence could look like in their lifetimes while simultaneously

trying to determine the difference between the bond of two humans and the bond of a human and

an AI.

Work Cited

Her. Directed by Spike Jonze, Warner Bros. Pictures, 13 Oct. 2013.