The Netflix movie Atlas praises AI while at the same time demonstrating everything wrong with AI.
This article containsfull spoilers for Atlas.
When Smith asks what she wants to call the flower, Atlas responds with an uncreative name: Planty.
At the same time, this dull bit of nomenclature illustrates the way AI destroys creativity.
Which seems an apt metaphor for the movie its in.
Subsequently, most of the conflict inAtlasinvolves the Lopez characters distrust of all AI, especially Smith.
Only when she gives in to Smith does Atlas have the ability to defeat Harlan.
Ad content continues below
As this description suggests,Atlasis about learning that AI is good, actually.
An interminable sequence involves her berating Smith as he heals her wound.
Even the big bad Harlan is a rejoinder against Atlas mistrust.
So according toAtlas, AI enhances what people do.
If they give it good, it will make the world better.
If they give it bad, it will make things worse.
But every problem is the fault of people, not AI.
Like so manyNetflix original films,Atlasfeels designed to be best enjoyed by the inattentive.
The idea of hunting down rogue synthetic humans, of course, owes much toBlade Runner.
And then theres Peytons bland visual style.
Its hard to find a single new idea inAtlasexcept for its insistence that AI is good.
Of course its lack of new ideas demonstrates exactly why AI is bad.
#aicinema is finally here!
the user declared, a point that many of the supportive commenters reiterated.
Hell, that would even includeAtlas.
Thats true, but thats not the problem.
Instead its all generic Jazz Age footage, with no feeling and specificity.
Which is ultimately what AI always does.
It never creates anything new.
To be clear, AI isnt the only way to be derivative.
Brad Peyton and his co-creators prove that withAtlas.
I hate people… she confesses through tears.
But I like you.
With that statement, Atlas makes its moral plain.
But AI is good.
Of course the AI is just a riff on a person, right down to his name.
Atlas is now streaming on Netflix.
