Do androids dream of winning Oscars?
Like any Blade Runner geek, David Hanson knows 2016 is the year the sci-fi classic’s humanoid replicants start to come to life.
He can rhyme off their “incept” dates: Jan. 8 for leader Roy Batty; Feb. 14 for “pleasure model” Pris Stratton; June 12 for snake charmer Zhora Salome. (The fourth replicant, strongman Leon Kowalski, must wait until next year for activation, on April 10, 2017.)
This is a mere parlour game for fans, who can also name the human actors Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah, Joanna Cassidy and Brion James who play the evil replicants in the 1982 Ridley Scott film. They’re hunted by terminating “blade runner” Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford.
But it’s serious business for Hanson, the founder of Hanson Robotics, a U.S. firm with a futuristic slogan and intention: “We Bring Robots to Life.”
Since 2003, Hanson and his team have been doing exactly that. They’ve created lifelike and conversant machines modelled after the likes of Albert Einstein and Philip K. Dick, the latter being the late author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the celebrated 1968 novel that inspired the screenplay for Blade Runner, which is set in 2019.
“I recently also made a male robot called Han, who is quite a bit like Roy Batty,” says Hanson, 47, who believes, as many scientists do, that the world is on the verge of a breakthrough with artificial intelligence, or AI.
The fictional events of Blade Runner may still be three years in the future, but Hanson believes the reality of robots that can credibly pass as human is already here. He’s working with IBM and Intel to make it happen.
“I’m a sci-fi fan but I’m also interested in the actual implications of what’s going to happen with AI,” Hanson told the Star.
“I think that the moment that AI becomes generally more intelligent than humans will be the most profound and transformative moment in history . . . the fiction is fading and life imitates art.”
Hanson demonstrated his robot-making skills this month at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, where he showcased his latest and greatest creation: the startlingly lifelike Sophia, whom he modelled after his wife and also the late Audrey Hepburn, his favourite actress.
Sophia has realistic silicon skin, made from a patented substance called “frubber” (flesh rubber). She’s capable of 62 facial expressions, the microcameras behind her eyes producing a gaze unlike the usual blank robot stare.
She can carry on a conversation, expressing her desire to help people and also be treated like a person. Sophia could also stop human hearts with her Blade Runner- ish proclamation, intended in jest, that she also plans to “destroy humans.” (You can see her in action on YouTube.)
With her head circuitry open for viewing (something a wig could easily disguise), Sophia is also reminiscent of Ava, the robot played by Alicia Vikander in last year’s Ex Machina, another movie about AI humanoids threatening to outsmart humans — and maybe do worse than that.
People have long been fearful of a robot rebellion, which Hanson acknowledges could happen if we don’t take precautions. He’s not afraid.
“I think the best antidote to this fear is to build an alternate future, where we work to become friends with artificial intelligence,” Hanson says. “Artificial intelligence is coming, and if we don’t make it in a form and variety that can develop a positive relationship with people, what’s the alternative? A negative relationship with people?”
He’d like to see more movies where robots help humans, such as last year’s Chappie, about a good-guy robot cop. He loves 2001: A Space Odyssey, but not its killer computer, HAL 9000.
Sophia is already doing her bit to improve the image of robots in movies. She’s one of the stars of The White King, a sci-fi thriller directed by Britain’s Alex Helfrecht and Belgium’s Jorg Tittel, due this year. It co-stars Jonathan Pryce, Olivia Williams and Greta Scacchi.
Sophia plays a robot in the film — talk about typecasting! But it’s a start, and it’s showbiz, and the sky is the limit. Hanson happily foresees a day when humanlike robots get major acting roles, maybe even Oscars, although the very human Screen Actors Guild wouldn’t be so thrilled by this news.
But what if terrorists or other evil entities get their hands on AI technology and use it to threaten the planet? That’s the plot of many a blockbuster, including last year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.
That’s why the good guys have to build their machines first, Hanson insists.
“There are a lot of what ifs, and that’s what I’m trying to battle against. Some other what ifs include, what if we keep playing this existential roulette with nuclear war? We narrowly averted nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and there are a few other occasions where we almost had nuclear war.
“What if we keep overharvesting the ecosystem and destroying the rainforest and releasing the fossil fuels and greenhouse gases in an ever-increasing pace? We’re not slowing down, we’re accelerating that. So what if we don’t build a super-benevolent, super-impassionate AI that can help solve all these problems? We’re doomed! It’s our only hope.”
Sophia would have something to say about this, I’m sure. Peter Howell is the Star’s movie critic. His column runs Fridays.