News: 0177767323

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Google Tries Funding Short Films Showing 'Less Nightmarish' Visions of AI (yahoo.com)

(Monday May 26, 2025 @04:30PM (EditorDavid) from the don't-be-evil dept.)


"For decades, Hollywood directors including Stanley Kubrick, James Cameron and Alex Garland have cast AI as a villain that can turn into a killing machine," [1]writes the Los Angeles Times . "Even Steven Spielberg's relatively hopeful A.I.: Artificial Intelligence had a pessimistic edge to its vision of the future."

But now "Google — a leading developer in AI technology — wants to move the cultural conversations away from the technology as seen in The Terminator , 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ex Machina. ". So they're funding short films "that portray the technology in a less nightmarish light," produced by Range Media Partners (which represents many writers and actors)

> So far, two short films have been greenlit through the project: One, titled "Sweetwater," tells the story of a man who visits his childhood home and discovers a hologram of his dead celebrity mother. Michael Keaton will direct and appear in the film, which was written by his son, Sean Douglas. It is the first project they are working on together. The other, "Lucid," examines a couple who want to escape their suffocating reality and risk everything on a device that allows them to share the same dream....

>

> Google has much riding on convincing consumers that AI can be a force for good, or at least not evil. The hot space is increasingly crowded with startups and established players such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Apple and Facebook parent company Meta. The Google-funded shorts, which are 15 to 20 minutes long, aren't commercials for AI, per se. Rather, Google is looking to fund films that explore the intersection of humanity and technology, said Mira Lane, vice president of technology and society at Google. Google is not pushing their products in the movies, and the films are not made with AI, she added... The company said it wants to fund many more movies, but it does not have a target number. Some of the shorts could eventually become full-length features, Google said....

>

> Negative public perceptions about AI could put tech companies at a disadvantage when such cases go before juries of laypeople. That's one reason why firms are motivated to makeover AI's reputation. "There's an incredible amount of skepticism in the public world about what AI is and what AI will do in the future," said Sean Pak, an intellectual property lawyer at Quinn Emanuel, on a conference panel. "We, as an industry, have to do a better job of communicating the public benefits and explaining in simple, clear language what it is that we're doing and what it is that we're not doing."



[1] https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/short-films-convince-people-ai-100000840.html



Donâ(TM)t Be Evil (Score:5, Insightful)

by dbialac ( 320955 )

This movement being run by a company the used to have the motto âoeDonâ(TM)t be evilâ, and then dropped it so it could be.

Re: Donâ(TM)t Be Evil (Score:5, Informative)

by zawarski ( 1381571 )

Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Smart Punctuation = off. "Congrats, your iPhone is now /. compatible."

Re: (Score:2)

by VaccinesCauseAdults ( 7114361 )

We are one quarter of the way through the 21st century and antimatter is being transported from CERN on trucks across Europe. Any website not supporting Unicode and spewing Mojibake needs to die.

Re: (Score:3)

by gweihir ( 88907 )

To be fair, "Don't be evil" to "Do be evil" is a minor change...

Re: (Score:2)

by ChunderDownunder ( 709234 )

Four legs good, two legs better.

Re: (Score:2)

by bussdriver ( 620565 )

If most Americans can be convinced Trump is not evil incarnate you can convince them of anything. The guy better fits nearly all Bible prophecies for Antichrists (yes, it's actually plural) that I've ever read but the people who believe that BS suddenly became skeptical! (Yet, a few still think Obama was one!)

Google is wasting their money on this approach; they need to bias their AI and search results to promote positive web pages which they could generate by the 100s... Actually, just buy a few million in

Star Trek computer (Score:5, Funny)

by aj50 ( 789101 )

The non-nightmarish AI character is already there, it's the computer on board the enterprise.

Unfortunately today's AI technology only seems capable of being your plastic pal who's fun to be with.

Re: (Score:2)

by thecombatwombat ( 571826 )

Wrong kind of hopeful for Google.

There was no money on the Enterprise . . .

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

Downright dystopian.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQQYbKT_rMg

Re: (Score:2)

by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 )

And yet, just about every episode tells the story of a situation that requires money, or that is difficult because of the lack of money.

Re: (Score:2)

by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 )

Generally, this is true. But there are tons of episodes that hinge on the non-nightmarish "computer" running amok, or otherwise malfunctioning.

Re: (Score:2)

by achowe ( 829564 )

"The Ultimate Computer"

The M-5 didn't have much success.

"A Taste of Armageddon"

Automated war without destruction.

"The Changeling"

Nomad

"Shore Leave"

The planet is the AI amusement park.

"Star Trek: The Motion Picture"

V'ger

Let me get this straight... (Score:5, Insightful)

by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 )

So their handpicked charm offensive movies are one about a guy interacting with a chatbot simulacrum of a dead family member; and one about people using the promise of technological escapism to cope with the fact that their lives are grim and terrible?

Are they getting trolled here; or do the fundamentally misunderstand why people find them creepy? This is basically "Zuckerberg thinks that AI friends are the solution to loneliness" the movie"

Re: (Score:2)

by Barny ( 103770 )

Just wait until meme mill gets to them. The edits are going to be great.

Re: (Score:3)

by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 )

> So their handpicked charm offensive movies are one about a guy interacting with a chatbot simulacrum of a dead family member; and one about people using the promise of technological escapism to cope with the fact that their lives are grim and terrible? Are they getting trolled here; or do the fundamentally misunderstand why people find them creepy? This is basically "Zuckerberg thinks that AI friends are the solution to loneliness" the movie"

They certainly don't understand that those movies are nightmarish and creepy as well. Dead Parents? Escape from life? Ummm, ewww!

In reality, it will probably be celebrity based sex dolls with AI pseudo personalities.

Re: (Score:1)

by EnjoyerEnjoyer ( 10502839 )

Remember the 2013 movie "Her" directed by Spike Jonze?

Re: (Score:3)

by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 )

> Remember the 2013 movie "Her" directed by Spike Jonze?

"Her" is one of those movies like "The Truman Show" that correctly predicted where we were heading on our way to becoming "Idiocracy".

"Her" reality is here, [1]https://www.hammerai.com/chara... [hammerai.com]

"Truman Show" reality is here, thanks to EmilyCC [2]https://www.complex.com/pop-cu... [complex.com]

[1] https://www.hammerai.com/characters/girlfriend

[2] https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/levi-winslow/emilycc-twitch-streamer-three-year-subathon-kai-qtcinderella

Re: (Score:3)

by phantomfive ( 622387 )

> nonstop broadcast that kicked off in 2021, Emilycc—who withholds her last name for privacy reasons

There's a quote for this: "Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see." -- Arthur Schopenhauer. I sure can't see it.

Re: (Score:1)

by MacMann ( 7518492 )

> Remember the 2013 movie "Her" directed by Spike Jonze?

I didn't see that but the idea of celebrity based sex dolls with a poorly implemented AI personality makes me think of Futurama where that was the setup for an episode. There was also a few minutes in The 6th Day with Schwarzenegger's character having interactions with a kind of sexbot. In both cases the presence of the AI was mostly for comedic effect than any deep commentary on the human condition.

An AI is almost always the villain or some side character since it is not likely for an audience of humans

Re: (Score:2)

by karmawarrior ( 311177 )

All of this is true but I find the assertion that the media only ever shows evil AIs as dubious to begin with, so while - you're correct - they have every reason to, in practice... they don't do it.

Obvious examples that come off the top of my head:

- Interstellar - Ironic, given this was Nolan's attempt to make a 2001-like movie, but Interstellar has a friendly AI that Nolan even wants you to feel for. (This is another reason why I don't like that movie despite its bizarre fanbase.)

- Wall-E

- Short Circuit (I

Re: (Score:2)

by timholman ( 71886 )

> Are they getting trolled here; or do the fundamentally misunderstand why people find them creepy? This is basically "Zuckerberg thinks that AI friends are the solution to loneliness" the movie"

As much as I hate to give credit to one of the world's leading techno-sociopaths, Zuckerberg isn't entirely wrong. My wife is a social worker who works with lots of shut-in patients, and in many cases even an AI companion would be better than the complete lack of human companionship and interfaction that many of them

Re: (Score:2)

by sound+vision ( 884283 )

A story generally needs some kind of problem or conflict to resolve. To depict AI as the hero, or at least something that supports the hero, they have to come up with use cases that don't necessarily exist. Hence the adversarial, dystopian sci-fi world and scenarios.

Trying to advertise AI for use cases that do exist tends to end up creepy as well. I remember a certain Apple ad, and I think one from Google, showing all the little moments and human achievements that AI would suck out of your life.

I think the

"in a LESS nightmarish light" (Score:2)

by know-nothing cunt ( 6546228 )

OK Google. So are we talking only slightly nightmarish? Average nightmarish? That's reassuring.

Re: (Score:2)

by Patrik_AKA_RedX ( 624423 )

Like an Eco-friendly AI that hunts down all the people who say "thank you" to AIs?

Ah, finally... (Score:2)

by rmdingler ( 1955220 )

The arrival of our kinder, gentler AI overlord.

A warm and fuzzy Welcome , then.

AI-for-AI's-Sake a Different Kind of Nightmare? (Score:3)

by theodp ( 442580 )

While not nightmarish in the traditional sense, films that just use AI for AI's sake, as in the [1]"This Town Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" 2-minute Google I/O intro film [youtube.com] (look kids, a giant rubber duckie in the Old West - isn't that amazing!) probably won't get most folks excited about AI.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/live/o8NiE3XMPrM?si=WoQI1o2VufaiPFKI

Why reinvent the wheel (Score:2)

by dvice ( 6309704 )

SPOILER ALERT, full plot below.

Cute pink robot cat who helps people (except those who are evil) ... and a super computer who wants to kill everyone (to save the planet) ... but in the end AI figures out the power of friendship and happy end:

[1]https://myanimelist.net/anime/... [myanimelist.net]

The lesson we can learn from this is that AI is also a human, who just need to be taught properly and it will behave and benefit humanity.

[1] https://myanimelist.net/anime/709/Mujin_Wakusei_Survive

dystopia, dattopia (Score:2)

by groobly ( 6155920 )

My topia is better than your topia.

Bad news sells (Score:3)

by Visarga ( 1071662 )

Just like bad news spread wider than good news, movies about "bad AI" would get more views than Google's videos. It's an unfortunate trait of human preferences.

Commercials (Score:4, Funny)

by rsilvergun ( 571051 )

They're called commercials.

Any hopeful future for AI requires fundamental changes to our culture and society and civilization that the owners of Google aren't willing to allow. It would involve taking away the enormous power they have stocked up over years so that they couldn't use it to abuse people.

And I just isn't in the cards.

Non-functional trash does more damage (Score:2)

by RightwingNutjob ( 1302813 )

than fiction ever can.

Think about something else villified in film and literature: the evil greedy evil corporation. Did I mention evil? Corporations are still a mechanism for profit, because of solid fundamentals. Peanut gallery be damnded.

When the AI stops telling people to eat glue and actually sets the destination on my map or places the phone call I told it too...then maybe it's not gonna have the reputation it does.

And that reputation...it's less SkyNet and more Keystone Kops.

Even though, would it work ? (Score:3)

by dargaud ( 518470 )

In the movie [1]Transcendence [imdb.com], humans develop a benevolent AI. What the 1st thing they want to do to it ? Kill it. I was like, what a bunch of dumb apes.

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2209764/

Real purpose is capitalist propaganda (Score:5, Interesting)

by oumuamua ( 6173784 )

Not one of these movies will show an end to capitalism. Amazon was set to do a show on Iain Bank's Culture series that mysteriously got dropped because the estate said the 'timing was not right'. What probably happened was that Amazon saw the Culture world was way to socialist - and paid the estate to sit on it indefinitely. [1]https://www.genolve.com/design... [genolve.com]

[1] https://www.genolve.com/design/socialmedia/memes/-Post-Scarcity-Capitalism--Culture-Series-The-Pl

Re: (Score:2)

by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

I wonder if we're not getting Snow Crash because it shows the future Amazon and their ilk are trying to bring about way too accurately.

Re: (Score:2)

by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 )

Yep this is the fundamental, unavoidable problem that Google wants to not only gloss over, but distract from. AI + Capitalism = Dystopia.

Lipstick on a Ticking Bomb (Score:5, Interesting)

by BrendaEM ( 871664 )

Not only is AI not going to not end well--AI has brought nothing but power consumption, loss of jobs, and consolidation of wealth.

Re: (Score:2)

by MpVpRb ( 1423381 )

Or maybe, the new tools will allow us to solve previously intractable problems

I don't understand the hate and pessimism, but I do understand that the road ahead will not be easy

Re: (Score:2)

by BrendaEM ( 871664 )

Each day, here, we see the layoffs. No medical advances will office the loss of healthcare by the growing unemployed masses.

Re: (Score:1)

by ShadowDragen ( 805730 )

Isn't that what computers, aviation, and most technology brings at least at first?

Re: (Score:2)

by BrendaEM ( 871664 )

No, I want a human pilot. Remember the Boeing 737 Max crashes?

Re: (Score:1)

by ShadowDragen ( 805730 )

I agree, and I prefer an uber driver to a car that drives itself too. There was the Waymo incident that was covered up too. And unfortunately it doesn't look like we can end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine with AI either. But it can be used to create a surplus of food and shelter, and improve healthcare outcomes. Who knows, maybe some day it will even help with PTSD.

The fear of knowledge is old (Score:2)

by MpVpRb ( 1423381 )

...very old, going back millennia

For some odd reason, people have had this crazy idea that there were some things that we weren't meant to know.

The truth is that evolution is ongoing.

At first, it was purely physical. Then it was intellectual and technological. Now we are at the beginning of a new era in the evolution of mind.

The future is becoming increasingly unpredictable, but the evolution of mind will continue

Re: (Score:2)

by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

Meant? Meh. There are definitely things we're not ready to know. Unfortunately, we know many of them already.

Tech companies are nightmarish (Score:2)

by peppepz ( 1311345 )

AI is certainly a problematic technology, but what really is nightmarish is that such technology is the latest and most powerful lever in the hands of gargantuan tech companies that are devoid of any moral considerations and wield more power than any person or organization in the history of humanity has ever had.

Was Hal evil? (Score:2)

by ClickOnThis ( 137803 )

Hal might have appeared to be evil in 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, it is revealed in 2010: The Year We Make Contact that Hal actually went insane because he was told to lie to his team-mates on the Discovery , contrary to his main purpose of conveying information accurately.

That, and Hal redeemed himself in 2010 when he sacrificed himself and Discovery to save the crew of the Leonov. Sorry for the spoiler.

Re: (Score:2)

by localroger ( 258128 )

Hal's insanity trigger was actually revealed in the book version of 2001 itself.

Re: (Score:2)

by ClickOnThis ( 137803 )

I read the first book and don't recall that. But it was a long time ago.

I can't wait! (Score:2)

by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 )

It should be quite a spectacle - ordinary folks falling over each other in their rush to transform those puff-piece propaganda films - via AI - into the comical and/or dystopian nightmares we all know they deserve to be. (Dare I say "they want to be"?

Using AI to turn propaganda into counter-propaganda is going to be a new hobby / sport / act of civil disobedience. I actually kinda welcome this, because when everything is propaganda, then nothing is propaganda - it's all just noise to be ignored.

Next up Soylent Green: (Score:1)

by Tablizer ( 95088 )

..."it's delicious, goes well with cheese, and good for the environment!"

Star Wars (Score:1)

by registrations_suck ( 1075251 )

The Star Wars galaxy is full of "good" AI - friendly droids, doing all kinds of useful work for humans and aliens.

What I always wanted to see (Score:2)

by nanospook ( 521118 )

They should do âoeThe moon is a harsh mistress". Maybe I'll make it in a few years.

"I'd love to go out with you, but the last time I went out, I never came back."