We Need to Talk About A.I.

Thought provoking and extremely watchable documentary showcasing a balance of viewpoints from leading experts - the trouble is, they were all so convincing and backed up their arguments so well, I am not sure whose side I come down on. The most telling comment for me however, was the observation from one that 'the human race does not have a plan'. So now the AI genie has been released, are we hurtling across a minefield without a map towards doom, or salvation? And - another point of professional disagreement - will it take 40, 60, 100 or 200 years to find out? I have been talking about AI a lot since I viewed this.

This is a fascinating look at an important subject. As a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey I thought using Kubrick's film to frame this conversation was both relevant and entertaining. He warned us what might happen 60 years ago and this documentary explains why everything he said is still relevant. We do need to talk about it.

It was an amazing idea to slice and dice the thoughts of smart people into an insane salad, dress it with some insights from random quacks as deep as a tea spoon, then serve it as a "documentary".

How did Cameron deserve a right to have an opinion about the A.I.? By making a movie with a robot in it?

He also made a movie with a ship in it - well, now, let's ask his opinion on naval architecture and the problems of modern hydrodynamic engineering.

Instead of letting the smart people express their smart thoughts precisely and at length, the movie rips their words out of context and rearranges them to fit some weird alarmist narrative.

The four stars are specifically for Roman Yampolskiy, Sam Harris, Max Tegmark and Jurgen Schmidhuber.

A refreshing new take on a subject dominated by either pretentious techno gurus or tin-foil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorists. This documentary cuts through the morass of hype surrounding AI showing us both the people involved and the critics. The contrasting views presented offer a thought-provoking account of the divide between progress and morality that characterises this issue. Overall, a stimulating documentary, would definitely recommend to anyone with a brain.

There is a variety of interesting (if at times somewhat shallow) subjects covered in this film, with some of the greatest minds in the field offering their insights. Unfortunately, it is severely undercut by ridiculous narration more on par with a paranormal documentary on the Discovery channel. The Baby X part was particularly interesting, would love to see a doc on that.