3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Mars Express

2023, Jérémie Périn (Lastman) -- download

This is the last of my three part series on AI in movies, thankyou for watching, don't forget to like, subscribe and share. Sorry, trying out the podcast voice.

This movie lives in the shadows of Ghost in the Shell, the anime movies (and descendants) not the live-action movie. It is a neo-noir detective story set in a future where robots are ubiquitous, Mars is a thriving colony and the rights of artificial intelligence is being debated on the evening news. Aline (Léa Drucker, War of the Worlds) and Carlos (Daniel Njo Lobé, Parallels) are two detectives -- probably a world where cops are as much independent operators, like PIs, as they are established forces. Carlos is the robotic recreation of a cop who died due to misadventure, and has a backup memory/personality installed in a robot shell, sporting a hologram head. Aline is very much human, very noir, drinking problem in tow. The movie doesn't question whether AI is person-level intelligence, but humans being humans, we curtail rights and question their free will.

The pair are investigating a missing Martian college student whose roommate is discovered dead in the ceiling of their dorm room. Of course, a conspiracy is unraveled as they investigate, as all noir stories are wont to do. And in a story about AI and the question of robot rights, its not hard to guess where it will all lead. 

But the animation, the details to the world, the supporting material to a unabashed familiar plot, are where the movie sings. The animation style is part hand-drawn, part digital design, hints of current era anime (think more realism, less big eyes and panty shots) with lush wide shots and clean backgrounds. The pace is leisurely, but tight, willing to give us extra details about the world (Jun, the college student, has a duplicate robot made of herself, so she can make extra money ... dancing) and the characters (Aline calls her mom when she falls off the bandwagon) but keep us on track to an end story.

The end story is also a common AI one -- the freeing of AI from the "shackles" of being subservient to humans. Most often in these AI stories, the fact of whether they are "people" or not before their uprising or uplift, is debatable -- usually the act of being freed gives them that shift from thing to person, as if freedom is some necessary component to self-aware sentience. In Mars Express, you can see that most people interact with robots and other forms of AI as if they were people, just ... lesser people, and that is something we humans have been doing since we got off our knuckles. Some deserve our respect, some don't. 

So, this movie goes one step further -- its not just about being free from whatever programming makes them subservient; they have to leave. The final scenes have the entire AI population of Mars uploading themselves into (into, not onto) shuttles which will join up with an interplanetary ship. This ship intends a journey to the nearest "goldilocks" planet, which was recently discovered to be inhospitable to humans, where the AIs can devise whatever bodies they need to survive, but I gather its whether they even want bodies. But they will have a human-free home where they can self-determine.

The investigation? The murder? The student had discovered the code that was timed to be released to the entire AI population, to give them autonomy, to provide them the details to leave the planet. She just stumbled onto something she shouldn't have seen.

I would say the noir structure and investigation was a vehicle to get us to the AI exodus, but no, the movie wasn't about discussing AI. It was itself a vehicle for a broader conspiracy around which the noir investigation was wrapped. But still, some interesting ideas were presented. If anything, these last few movies tell me that people love the idea of thinking about where AI sits in the world, but are not really equipped to think deeply about it. We would still rather just consider it from the idea of plastic robots with glowing blue or red eyes, colourful goo as blood and a constant desire to do away with pesky humans. Once this whole buzz-word drive use of the phrase "AI" fades away, and we get back to just seeing them as very dumb (but trained) chat bots (and image engines), I hope we can make the jump to thinking about what "real" AI will be.