Event
Science on Screen: How to Regulate a Robot?
Science on Screen® features creative pairings of current, classic, cult, and documentary films with lively introductions by notable figures from the world of science, technology, and medicine.
The film is Ex Machina, the 2014 science fiction/drama/mystery from director Alex Garland, the writer of 28 Days Later and Sunshine.
Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a programmer at an internet-search giant, wins a competition to spend a week at the private mountain estate of the company’s brilliant and reclusive CEO, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). Upon his arrival, Caleb learns that Nathan has chosen him to be the human component in a Turing Test–charging him with evaluating the capabilities, and ultimately the consciousness, of Nathan’s latest experiment in artificial intelligence. That experiment is Ava (Alicia Vikander), a breathtaking A.I. whose emotional intelligence proves more sophisticated–and more deceptive–than the two men could have imagined.
Pre-film presentation: New challenges lie ahead as we invite robots into our homes. Do we owe rights and protections to the robots? Who is liable if a robot injures us? And is there a future for privacy in a world where robots and other appliances are always listening?
About the Speaker: BJ Ard’s research focuses on the law’s response to technological change, with particular interests in intellectual property, privacy, and e-commerce. He is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Yale Law School and Resident Fellow at the Yale Information Society Project. This fall he will join the faculty at the University of Arizona.
