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Bina48, the central figure of the documentary “Love Machina,” is among the most terrifying film characters of the year. A disembodied head resembling a middle-aged Black woman and powered by artificial intelligence, Bina48 combines a realistic face, dead emotionless eyes, jerky and mechanical head movements, and speech that resembles a voicemail chatbot more than a living being to create an uncanny valley nightmare. But to basically everyone on screen, Bina48 is a dream, a sign of a world where — to quote the motto of her makers at the Terasem Movement — “Life is purposeful. Death is optional. God is technological. Love is essential.”
Whether “Love Machina” agrees with its subjects’ views about Bina48, and the larger ongoing debates about the ethics of artificial intelligence, is a bit of a mystery even by the time its credits roll. In taking us into the story of the AI, director Peter Sillen opts for...
Whether “Love Machina” agrees with its subjects’ views about Bina48, and the larger ongoing debates about the ethics of artificial intelligence, is a bit of a mystery even by the time its credits roll. In taking us into the story of the AI, director Peter Sillen opts for...
- 1/25/2024
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYjhlMzMyMmQtZWFmMS00NTRhLWFjZDctMDU5ZjVlZTkzMGRhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYjhlMzMyMmQtZWFmMS00NTRhLWFjZDctMDU5ZjVlZTkzMGRhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
If you follow the news, you’d think that AI is going to take over every activity we formerly thought of as “human,” perhaps by the time you finish reading this sentence.
One of the great pleasures of reviewing documentaries, though, is that every few months a new film will pull back the curtain on the latest advancement in artificial intelligence or consciousness-infused robotics. Fairly consistently, the answer is: “Nah. People are safe. For now.”
For now.
The latest documentary to enter this fray is Peter Sillen’s Love Machina, a jumbled and easily distracted meditation on artificial intelligence, robotics, love, immortality, transformation and a form of spirituality that combines all of those things.
This is a subgenre in which any filmmaker will have to confront a series of what look like binaries, but increasingly aren’t: Visionary or crackpot? Science or science fiction? Utopian vision of the future or...
One of the great pleasures of reviewing documentaries, though, is that every few months a new film will pull back the curtain on the latest advancement in artificial intelligence or consciousness-infused robotics. Fairly consistently, the answer is: “Nah. People are safe. For now.”
For now.
The latest documentary to enter this fray is Peter Sillen’s Love Machina, a jumbled and easily distracted meditation on artificial intelligence, robotics, love, immortality, transformation and a form of spirituality that combines all of those things.
This is a subgenre in which any filmmaker will have to confront a series of what look like binaries, but increasingly aren’t: Visionary or crackpot? Science or science fiction? Utopian vision of the future or...
- 1/20/2024
- by Daniel Fienberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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In some movies, the quest for immortality is about escaping death. But the new Sundance documentary “Love Machina” is a different take. For Dr. Martine and Bina Rothblatt, the couple at the heart of the film, it’s about prolonging love.
“There’s an energy when Martine and Bina walk in a room. You feel it… and it’s kind of electric,” says Peter Sillen, director and producer of “Love Machina.” “With this film, it’s interesting to see people who are very cognizant of their relationship as stronger together than apart and how that forges and solidifies their resolve to accomplish great things.”
Like digital immortality: The documentary focuses on their journey to build Bina48, an AI humanoid robot based on an extensive “mindfile” of human Bina’s memories and thought patterns.
“Martine said the idea of just being born and living and dying is going to be thought...
“There’s an energy when Martine and Bina walk in a room. You feel it… and it’s kind of electric,” says Peter Sillen, director and producer of “Love Machina.” “With this film, it’s interesting to see people who are very cognizant of their relationship as stronger together than apart and how that forges and solidifies their resolve to accomplish great things.”
Like digital immortality: The documentary focuses on their journey to build Bina48, an AI humanoid robot based on an extensive “mindfile” of human Bina’s memories and thought patterns.
“Martine said the idea of just being born and living and dying is going to be thought...
- 1/20/2024
- by Drew Pearce for Dropbox
- Indiewire
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDljMmY0YWEtODYxOC00NmIzLTlmMTctMGJiZmI2MDgzZmIyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UY281_CR80,0,500,281_.jpg)
By the time in 2010 Martine Rothblatt completed the first iteration of Bina48, the “social robot” modeled after her real-life partner, Bina Aspen (now Bina Rothblatt), she had already trailblazed an extraordinary career across multiple industries. A lawyer and entrepreneur, she cofounded Sirius Satellite Radio as well as biotech company United Therapeutics, the latter an outgrowth of her work developing a medication that saved her daughter Jenesis’s life, along with over 40,000 others suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension. So when Rothblatt, a transgender rights activist, who, at one point, was declared the world’s highest paid female CEO, and her wife […]
The post “This Isn’t Just Any AI”: Director Pete Sillen on Bina48 and His Sundance Documentary, Love Machina first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “This Isn’t Just Any AI”: Director Pete Sillen on Bina48 and His Sundance Documentary, Love Machina first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/20/2024
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDljMmY0YWEtODYxOC00NmIzLTlmMTctMGJiZmI2MDgzZmIyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UY281_CR80,0,500,281_.jpg)
By the time in 2010 Martine Rothblatt completed the first iteration of Bina48, the “social robot” modeled after her real-life partner, Bina Aspen (now Bina Rothblatt), she had already trailblazed an extraordinary career across multiple industries. A lawyer and entrepreneur, she cofounded Sirius Satellite Radio as well as biotech company United Therapeutics, the latter an outgrowth of her work developing a medication that saved her daughter Jenesis’s life, along with over 40,000 others suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension. So when Rothblatt, a transgender rights activist, who, at one point, was declared the world’s highest paid female CEO, and her wife […]
The post “This Isn’t Just Any AI”: Director Pete Sillen on Bina48 and His Sundance Documentary, Love Machina first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “This Isn’t Just Any AI”: Director Pete Sillen on Bina48 and His Sundance Documentary, Love Machina first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/20/2024
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
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Exhibiting Forgiveness.The Sundance Institute has announced the films selected for their 2024 Festival, which will take place January 18-28, 2024, in person in Utah. A selection of the films are available online across the U.S. from January 25-28.U.S. Dramatic COMPETITIONBetween the Temples (Nathan Silver): A cantor in a crisis of faith finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher reenters his life as his new adult bat mitzvah student. World Premiere. DìDi (弟弟) (Sean Wang): In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom. World Premiere. Exhibiting Forgiveness (Titus Kaphar): Utilizing his paintings to find freedom from his past, a Black artist on the path to success is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father,...
- 12/13/2023
- MUBI
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The 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival unveiled the aorta of its lineup which runs from Jan. 18-28 in Park City, Ut, with movies about AI being a running theme in the politically and socially conscious event as well as 80% of movies up for grabs for distribution.
In addition there are movies starring Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg (who is also back directing), Pedro Pascal, Sebastian Stan, Riley Keough, Woody Harrelson, Laura Linney with the return of Sundance darling Aubrey Plaza.
Coming out of a dual strike in which the guilds were adamant about setting guardrails for AI to protect actors and writers, several titles are taking various angles on the technology.
‘Eno’ Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
In the New Frontier section there’s the documentary Eno about the legendary music producer of David Bowie, Talking Heads, U2 and other artists. The movie is billed as a “groundbreaking generative documentary...
In addition there are movies starring Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg (who is also back directing), Pedro Pascal, Sebastian Stan, Riley Keough, Woody Harrelson, Laura Linney with the return of Sundance darling Aubrey Plaza.
Coming out of a dual strike in which the guilds were adamant about setting guardrails for AI to protect actors and writers, several titles are taking various angles on the technology.
‘Eno’ Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
In the New Frontier section there’s the documentary Eno about the legendary music producer of David Bowie, Talking Heads, U2 and other artists. The movie is billed as a “groundbreaking generative documentary...
- 12/6/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro and Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
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Exclusive: Physicist and author Alan Lightman has been pondering some major questions. For instance, “Where do we humans fit in the grand scheme of things? Are we just atoms and molecules, or something more? How does consciousness arise from the material neurons in our brains?”
The MIT professor and novelist goes looking for answers to those conundrums in the upcoming three-part documentary series Searching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science. The series, directed by Geoffrey Haines-Stiles, premieres on public television stations on January 7, the same date it begins streaming on PBS.org for a 60-day window.
Could there be a better name for a physicist than Lightman?
Lightman’s areas of inquiry are as vast as the universe and as tiny as the smallest particle of matter.
“We travel with him to the prehistoric caves of Font-de-Gaume in France, where drawings and symbols suggest that—as long...
The MIT professor and novelist goes looking for answers to those conundrums in the upcoming three-part documentary series Searching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science. The series, directed by Geoffrey Haines-Stiles, premieres on public television stations on January 7, the same date it begins streaming on PBS.org for a 60-day window.
Could there be a better name for a physicist than Lightman?
Lightman’s areas of inquiry are as vast as the universe and as tiny as the smallest particle of matter.
“We travel with him to the prehistoric caves of Font-de-Gaume in France, where drawings and symbols suggest that—as long...
- 10/27/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
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“A.rtificial I.mmortality” provides a diverting if superficial survey of how fast-evolving technology might be able to extend our lives — or at least some of our memories and characteristics. Featured as Hot Docs’ opening night selection, this Canadian documentary from director Ann Shin presents once-fantastical ideas now edging toward reality in a form palatable to broadcast viewers looking more for casual entertainment value than weighty investigation. But the film is weakened by its gratuitously first-person perspective, chosen for no obvious reason beyond the director evidently wanting to “star” in her own movie.
After an opening quote from Seneca, Shin takes center stage and stays there, as introduced at her 52nd birthday party, then perusing old family photos with two daughters. Her own mother has died, and her 78-year-old father is in a retirement home with dementia. But what if her own existence could somehow be elongated so that one...
After an opening quote from Seneca, Shin takes center stage and stays there, as introduced at her 52nd birthday party, then perusing old family photos with two daughters. Her own mother has died, and her 78-year-old father is in a retirement home with dementia. But what if her own existence could somehow be elongated so that one...
- 5/1/2021
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
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The Toronto-based Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival opens Thursday with the world premiere of “A.rtificial I.mmortality,” which explores advancements in AI, robotics, and biotech through close encounters with neuroscientists, AI developers, transhumanists, robot-creators, and visionaries who are pointing the way toward post-biological life.
Director Ann Shin spoke to Variety about her new film—one of 13 features in the festival’s Canadian Spectrum juried competition—and chatted up the next projects of Fathom Film Group, the female-led production company she founded in Toronto in 2006, and which is now represented by APA in the U.S.
“A.rtificial I.mmortality” is produced by Fathom Film’s Erica Leendertse and Hannah Donegan, with Shin and Gerry Flahive as executive producers, and in association with Canadian streamer Crave, a division of Bell Media Inc., with funding from the Canada Media Fund and Rogers Cable Network Fund.
Earlier this week Variety...
Director Ann Shin spoke to Variety about her new film—one of 13 features in the festival’s Canadian Spectrum juried competition—and chatted up the next projects of Fathom Film Group, the female-led production company she founded in Toronto in 2006, and which is now represented by APA in the U.S.
“A.rtificial I.mmortality” is produced by Fathom Film’s Erica Leendertse and Hannah Donegan, with Shin and Gerry Flahive as executive producers, and in association with Canadian streamer Crave, a division of Bell Media Inc., with funding from the Canada Media Fund and Rogers Cable Network Fund.
Earlier this week Variety...
- 4/29/2021
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
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