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AI and their Voices

When talking about AI all I could think of was Siri, Alexa, and HeyGoogle. One similarity they all have is that their default voices to commands are a women’s voice. I have had this conversation with my sister and mom before and we have agreed that it is not a coincidence. It the way society has always portrayed women, to be the one who fulfills the needs. 

-Greta Smith

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When talking about AI and gender I thought about this episode of Black Mirror, San Junipero. In this episode the two main characters have had their consciousness uploaded to the cloud where they can live in different decades. This episode was interesting because both women were Lesbians who could not express themselves during their real lives. In order to get your consciousness uploaded you have to be a old or dying and they were able to utilize this technology to live more freely.

-Sarah G

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While having the conversations surrounding women/gender roles in AI and sci-fi films, all I could think of is the Netflix movie I Am Mother. Although I think this is the only sci-fi movie I have ever seen, there were many parallels I was able to draw between our conversations and this movie. In a dystopian world where robots have taken over earth, a robot called “Mother” raises a child she grew from an embryo. The robot possesses all of the perfect motherly traits - it is equipped with humanly traits such as compassion and empathy, but also the ability to teach and equip “Daughter” to be a successful human. Eventually we find out the robot is evil (surprise surprise) and has been creating children to only kill them if they don’t meet the criteria the robots have set out to create the perfect human. I thought this movie was an interesting mix of gender roles and AI because the robot was an evil mother of sorts, created with “feminine” traits to take on the role of raising children. Even in a make believe world where robots rule earth, it is still a robot with a womanly voice and pronouns that is assigned to the child rearing task, as if a man doing the job is simply too far of a concept.

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Ethan Heyman - Week 14 - Aliens and AI

I’m pretty sure a lot of people are familiar with the artificial intelligence and alien themed movie series, “Men in Black”. This movie has a special place in my heart for its satirical aspects as well as the intriguing plot. If aliens really do exist, I think they would be depicted almost identical to the way the movie projects them to be. On another note, this movie has a strong appearance of artificial intelligence and hiding information from the public. A whole organization works in secrecy to fight off aliens, that almost the whole world has no idea about. It makes me wonder: “How much does the government know regarding AI and aliens that we the people do not know?” It’s truly something to think about. 

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Ethan Heyman - Week 13 - Aliens and AI

As a kid, cartoons were my favorite thing to watch. Whether it was Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network, I spent an unnecessary amount of time watching television when I should have been playing outside. One of my favorite movies, and later TV shows, was “The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius”. This movie actually was scary for me at the time of the release, because it was the first time I had seen a depiction of aliens on television. The aliens were evil, unfriendly, and their sole motive was to make humans into their slaves. I just think this is interesting, because aliens are depicted in so many different ways across many TV shows and movies. 

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Week 12 - Witches - Ethan Heyman

To me, “witch” inspired TV shows or movies have never been a passion of mine. What has been a passion of mine, however, is watching newish TV shows with my mom. This past summer, we watched the show “Hex”, about a girl who is plagued with witch powers and is trying to find her way through a normal high school. This show completely embodies how far witch themed characters in movies and shows have come since their first appearance. I always think of the Wicked Witch of the West, and how she was depicted as old, ugly, and even green. But this rendition of a witch in the show Hex just shows how far witches have come in their depiction in TV shows and movies. 

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I think that the film Ex-Machina has a very interesting relationship with gender and gender expression. I think that Ex Machina’s focus on sexuality was perhaps a critique in the way in which society hypersexualizes everything. The idea of women/girls being innocent while still having underlying sexual tones is common in society and it is used in the film. Ava ends up using this to her advantage to escape using the ideas that Nathan programmed her with and the knowledge from Blue Book but she flips them so instead of it being imposed on her, it benefits her. I think that her becoming the “complete” human version, with the white dress and the application of the skin, is an allegory of passing as woman and human instead of the machine she knows herself to be. I think she understood that if she did not adhere to gender roles of society that she would not be able to exist in the world she so desperately wanted to see. 

-Grace Cody

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AI and Misogyny

One of the most compelling tropes of the Alien and AI genre to me is the theme of men controlling and creating these beings. In the film ex machina, Ava is a robot created by a wealthy businessman and she’s essentially a prisoner to him. It brings about questions of the ethics of creating robots and AI (do they deserve rights? should they be shielded from emotional turmoil?) But the larger issue is that is reflects what we as a society deem appropriate and ground-breaking. Sex dolls are getting more and more realistic, with men preferring to have interactions with only these perfect hyper-femme beings, and that reflects what we value about women. Why need real women when we could create perfect women who are mess-free? 

-- Zoë Murrie 

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One of my favorite examples of Aliens in pop culture are the ones featured in Scary Movie 3. These aliens were displayed with the classic big oval heads and dark eyes, but had some especially unique cultural norms. For example, they peed out of their index fingers and greeted hello by delivering a swift punch where the sun don’t shine. While this is an especially comical example, these aliens are one of the first that come to mind when I think of Aliens in pop culture today.

-Abigail Pagett

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Admittedly one of the best movies from my childhood was Zenon: Girl of the 21st century. While it was released just before the 21st century (1999), the movie trilogy grossly overestimated the amount of technology the 21st century would have. In the second movie their ship runs out of fuel and nearly crash to their deaths on the Moon, but the aliens show up and rescue them. After Zenon meets the aliens on the Moon, they turn out to be friendly and, communicating with Zenon telepathically, reveal that they have been lost in space for three years and need the ship's navigation charts to get home. Im wondering if this is just a kids movie way of being optimistic about the turn of the century, but this movie reflects an oddly positive experience with aliens. Im wondering if they wanted to ease stress of kids about the future by showing the aliens as nice and friendly. 

— Shannon Murray 

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WALL-E

I have been loving all of the mentions of the Disney movie “WALL-E,” as I completely forgot about that film up until recently! Looking back at it now, it is  definitely one of those films made for children that has hidden truths and messages in its entertaining presentation. “WALL-E” presents a world where humankind has gotten so used to convenience and technology accomplishing daily tasks, that people completely lost their sense of self. The humans that are in the film are overweight and have their eyes practically glued to the screens in front of them. The film shows what impatience and overconsumption have lead to, and it’s honestly pretty terrifying. I feel as though we’re living in a version of that world right now. Agreeing with what others have said about “WALL-E,” the robot himself is an example of what positive AI can really do when working in collaboration with humans rather than doing work for them. 

- Kelly Cochran

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Aliens and AI in Pop Culture

I read another post on here that talked about how Aliens and A.I. are prominent in not just films and T.V., but also music. This made me think of E.T. by Katy Perry. The lyrics of the song alone sexualize aliens quite a bit and the music video goes even beyond. In the music video Katy Perry is an alien and she ends up coming across a robot. Once she kisses the robot, the robot turns into a naked man. This music video includes both A.I. and aliens and both are sexualized throughout the song and music video. There are a number of other music videos and songs that have weird tropes about aliens and A.I. and the “exotic” nature of these aliens and A.I. is sexualized. 

-Caitlin Dean

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Week #14: WALL-E & A.I.

I always found the movie “WALL-E” interesting, aside from it being one of the first Disney movies around A.I., but because it gave a different outlook on what the world could become if we don’t take care of our planet and the major role that technology would play in our lives. The movie incorporates many societal fears regarding to not only the state of our planet, but replacing everyday life with robots/technology to do it all for us. I think this movie showed what could become and if it does; technology could be in control. 

-Celeste D.

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In the movie ET, ET is really just a harmless but unknown being. This is a hidden message for having cultural anxieties around women because some do not understand them. ET and the 10 year old boy, Elliot, honestly just become friends. This is a representation of AI that isn’t so intimidating and scary.

Avery Johnson

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Throughout this lesson it was difficult for me to put together some sci-fi & AI films that i am familiar with. I just remembered about Westword & thought it was a really interesting take on free will, punishment, crime, and the gender roles of males & females. This particular show is about an amusement park filled with robotic “hosts” which allows wealthy participants to live out their fantasies through artifical conciousness.

Westworld provides viewers an idea of what it would be like to travel to a place where you could do absolutely anything without punishment. A majority of the show was centered around crime, murder, rape and revenge. It also diminishes the stigmatization that robots, artifical hosts, etc. in film are unintelligent. Hosts such as Dolores begin to recognize and most importantly recall memories of her previous “life” or experiences.

Westworld is one example of how AI is evolving as well as addressing contemporary, purge like experiences such as what would happen if we could do anything we want / wish & get away with it ?

- hannah b

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The film Dark Skies truly freaks me out. The plot follows a family who is being targeted by a group of aliens. The family experiences multiple deranged events which then leads to a disappearance. The aliens are terrifying and tend to only abduct children. 

-Derek S. 

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I think it’s interesting how the sexualization of artificial intelligence/aliens doesn’t stop with film and tv. It goes into other aspects of pop culture like music making it impossible to escape. Ariana Grande is a model for young girls so portraying herself in this light and playing into the stereotypes of artificial intelligence and gender is not beneficial. She has become an artist that largely acknowledges female empowerment yet playing into these tropes goes against that notion. I think that unless you’re in a class like this it’s hard to actually make the link between AI, femininity, and gender so that’s a possibility that she was simply unaware. Additionally, “sex sells” so portraying herself in this light also helps her make money. It is interesting to see how these tropes play out in areas different from television and the impact they have on pop culture.

-Grace Cunningham