Do You Trust This Computer? (2018) User Reviews

we should reboot

[ferguson-6 · 7/10 · 16 August 2018]

Greetings again from the darkness. When asked if they believe a computer could ever be conscious, two young woman combine to respond: 'No. Unless they program it that way'. And that answer is at the core of director Chris Paine's (WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?) latest exploration of Artificial Intelligence. Are we controlling the machines, or could they end up controlling us?

Early on, the point is made that science-fiction has numbed us to the potential pitfalls and risks of A.I. Fingers are pointed at some favorites such as TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, WARGAMES, EX MACHINA, THE MATRIX, and ROBOCOP. We have come to accept A.I. as high level entertainment rather than acknowledging the inroads being made by firms such as Google.

It is explained that Google search is actually a form of Artificial Intelligence and the algorithms are collecting more data than we have stopped to realize. For a film like this, expert talking heads are a necessity, and director Paine delivers. We hear from AI experts, writers, journalists, and doctors. The lineup includes Jonathan Nolan, Elon Musk, and Stuart Russell, and each offers fundamental insight for the topic, leaving us with the notion that A.I. is capable of 'incredible miracles, as well as incredible horrors'. We are also informed that "it's not the future, it's the present".

Specific areas impacted by A.I. and explored here include: self-driving cars, medical applications, military weaponry, and financial market data. Weaponized drones are an example, and one surgeon provides a real life case study of how a computer would have an advantage over him. Time is spent on the "Jeopardy" experiment where IBM's Watson (created by David Farucci) goes up against the top contestants and wins. Robotics are also a focus here, and the impact goes far beyond the loss of factory jobs.

Well known documentary writer Mark Monroe (ICARUS, FED UP, THE COVE) helps director Paine with the presentation structure since so many topics are touched upon. The electronic score is a bit overbearing at times, and we can't help but question the motivation behind the film's dedication, "In Memory of Stephen Hawking". The film could be viewed as high tech fear-mongering, however, it's more of a wake-up call to pay attention to the developments that are occurring (and how data is being collected and processed). The last thing we want is for the film's opening quote to come true: "You are my creator, but I'm your master" (Mary Shelley from "Frankenstein").

I'm afraid I can't do that

[mihai_alexandru_chindris · 8/10 · 27 September 2018]

It's thought provoking and it definitely rises questions to those who are concerned of their individuality, privacy and so on. Humans can grasp large amounts of information, but with the recent advancements in AI, I might change my perspectives, as the focus shifts more towards this topic. Anyway, we can only imagine of what the future may look like, until "something" else will predict it for us.

Must See

[robjohnwolfe · 8/10 · 30 May 2018]

'What is the last ANALOG thing in a digital world...? HUMANS.' Even when it comes to the basics like social media, google and GPS, I've had to ask myself, "Do I control it? Or does it control me?" Or substitute the word 'control' with 'depend on.' At best the lines are blurred. To say that we are like infants suckling at the teat of technology may not be overstating things. And then there is the inevitable concept of A.I. Artificial Intelligence which already exists. A fascinating documentary that explores the current human/AI condition is: DO YOU TRUST THIS COMPUTER? From the makers of Who Killed the Electric Car, this doco asks the leading minds in the field all the hard questions while referencing relevant movies such as Terminator, Matrix, Ex-Machina and even Robocop. Just to clarify, this is not a 'conspiracy' doco, but it's scarily confronting and definitely worth the watch!

One of the most important documentaries you will ever see

[FabledGentleman · 10/10 · 7 April 2018]

Let me start by saying that i am very interested in computers, and i have been since the early 1980's. Since then i have been working with computers, used them for gaming, for social interactions, i have used them for entertainment, like listening to music, watch movies, and so on. I have basically spent my entire life since i was only a child, on a computer.

This documentary is about A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) and some of my favorite movies of all time are 2001: A Space Odyssey, Terminator 1&2 and Wargames, all movies being used to describe things in this documentary. Some of these movies might have given many people the wrong idea about A.I. and eventually what it can do. I however have been paying attention somewhat closely. By reading articles and watching documentaries for decades about this, i am very aware of the progress being done in the field of A.I. But i don't think most people are. Therefor watching this documentary might be one of the single most important things anyone can ever do.

Also, i just have to mention that i deleted my facebook account many years ago, when i started to understand how much i could be manipulated using it. It was when the Snowden leaks happened, a lot of people said back then, that they were going to delete their facebook account, but as it turned out, less than 1% actually did. They had become so dependent on the platform, their entire life is now depending on it.

This is how it begins. It is one thing to become dependent on electricity for example, or that your food is guaranteed free of toxics and bacteria, or that your TV show actually begins on time. Being dependent on A.I. is something else entirely. We are talking about computers that already know everything about you, and are constantly storing information about you, building a profile to better understand what you want and desire.

This documentary does a great job in making you understand how the world you currently live in, is operated by code, without your knowledge, actually without anyones knowledge. Thing is, no one really knows how A.I. thinks, we only make it, and off it goes on it's own adventure. This can lead to catastrophic events that can end the entire human race in just moments. And this is not some distant future predictions, this is happening right now.

Everything from search algorithms, self driving cars, chess playing robots, robots used in medical industry to detect cancer and other deceases, surveillance systems that can detect and identify faces in milliseconds, military armed drones that can detect threat and intervene all on their own. All of this is already here, and this is already scary, but this is only the beginning. Were we go from here is a very uncertain path.

Elon Musk, which is one of the people being interviewed in this documentary has previously stated that he thinks there is a very high chance that A.I. will end us, and this documentary will go a long way explaining how that might happen.

Do you trust this computer? is essential for everyone to watch, it is well made, it explains things in a way that makes this subject a lot easier to understand. It however doesn't bring much new information to those that know a lot about this already, but i recommend watching it anyways.

10/10 - Essential watch

Watch all the comments from humans that do not understand

[zydyk · 10/10 · 9 April 2018]

Users reviewing this saying it is fear mongering, humans are not close to "real" ai, I do not get the ideas, this is not a documentary, blah blah blah do not understand just how advanced ai is right now and should not be so naive.

They really have not grasped what leading tech professionals have outlined in this documentary and should not be so ignorant of the points outlined. Yes there are a couple of doomsday sayers in this docu. However the message is clear and stated in a very formal and intellectual way.

There are numerous individuals and corporations, even military messing around with this technology under no rules, regulations or laws. That is dangerous.

Facebook shut down their AI once it had created its own language to "talk" to fellow machines on its network. and only after it stopped using english altogether.

Look at the example of the robot that "developed" facial tracking that the developers themselves cannot explain how or why. This example in itself opens up whole new plausibilities regarding life/nature relating to how neurons interact with organic and synthetic forms of life.

No government has laid the ground for any laws to protect any sector or human for that matter from AI, jobs???

I'm afraid for the future of the human race now

[niedzielskim · 10/10 · 6 April 2018]

I won't be writing a very long and informative review - the quality of this documentary is mostly attested by the people appearing in it, I found it through Elon Musk's Twitter... But it is eye-opening to the extent that it makes you realize how much technology has changed our lives over the last several decades and how much more it will change still in the coming decades. I don't want to be a fearmonger, but I was genuinely afraid and understood why the amish do what they do for a moment.

Democratize

[haldane-01458 · 10/10 · 9 April 2018]

Its my first review here, after years of using IMDB. First I would like to say I am not a researcher in AI. But I am a technologist and work in science. I have no conflicts of interest. I did take a course on Machine Learning, and I did read the book of Nick Bostrom (yes, doing both is possible).

And I really dislike fear mongers and death preachers. I believe in a bright future for us all.

Yet I find this documentary fabulously useful.

To those who say this documentary is not based on facts: interviewed are some of the finest players out there (like Andrew Ng from Google Brains/Stanford) or biggest shapers of our time (Musk), or before his death Stephen Hawking shared similar opinions.

You don´t have to like Musk and Hawking, but when Musk (and others) present the potentials risks and says: one of the best ways we have at our disposal to prevent this is to Democratize and inform about AI and teach (to avoid monopoly of a couple companies or a state): what´s in it for him ?

I think, nothing.

If thats all it takes, or if that helps: democratizing, informing, keeping an eye open, or better regulate more the industry of the big tech companies of the field. Then I say, do it. Avoid the blind-sided-ness of the public. Then all that happens, is that we decrease the risks; Musk doesnt get richer than rich, he already is, we just reduce the risk.

So thanks to Musk and the others for going forward and producing the movie if thats the case, I simply wished you´d make the movie public sometime soon, it would close the ´You just want to cash in on a new fear´angle. But thanks.

And yes it has visuals, is it a shame to want to make a documentary look good.. ? open up.

And DEMOCRATIZE

Fear the future....as it is. Today.

[carnagecarney · 10/10 · 15 April 2018]

A very well thought out and thought provoking documentary.

What is crazy about this documentary is, it is not sci-fi. It is not a view of the "technology of tomorrow" - it is the technology of today. The future is now.

Some of the brightest minds and leading researchers weigh in with examples of the impact AI is already having on our lives. How AI has helped shape global politics based on massive demographic analytics. How neural-nets we create, produce completely unexpected {and unforeseen} results. And much more...

I found it absolutely fascinating in a terrifying way. It achieves its purpose in highlighting the absolute necessity of a global body to monitor and provide regulatory requirements of AI - before some dude drinking a Red Bull flips a switch to "just test it out"...

Must watch - well done. 10/10

Artificially counterintelligent

[zelena33 · 1/10 · 13 September 2018]

This video annoyed and frustrated me.

There is little point in inviting billionaires and MIT professors to say things that we all already know. There is so little point, that it is immensely annoying and frustrating. The point, in the end, is to sit here and "be told." There's not a single line of comment in this hour and twelve minutes that the whole audience doesn't already know, and hasn't already heard and talked about and thought about.

And yet it's a tremendously important subject. See where this is going? It reflects the situation in reality: We sit around and helplessly comment on things that we ourselves are causing (by buying and selling this technology). There is absolutely no intelligent, critical thought reflected or presented in this film. Instead, we get BS ted-talky comments like "nobody can stop it!"

The truth is that everybody can stop it. But it has to be everybody, not somebody else.

It's just unspeakably stultifying, how much of the film consists of the dumbest, most obvious statements a person could possible make: "We've never had this data before!" "We've created tech that allows us to capture vast quantities of data!" "Google knows more about you than your mother!" "Data itself is not good or evil, it's how it's used!" etc etc etc. These are researchers at the leading universities.

The film is also full of people saying patently untrue statements ("Uber is making transportation cheaper...") that go unchallenged. It was not made by a journalist. So not made by a journalist. Why is that important? Because that's where the critical thinking would have come in. It's not about losing jobs to AI. People don't make money from jobs, they make money from .... owning capital and many other things that are exemplified by how the tech industry is making money, which points to how the AI problem is so much bigger than the principals here even recognize.

It's, again, symptomatic of where things stand, when you don't see any intelligence coming out of human beings, and certainly not out of their toys. Rather, we have been reduced to the "fanboys" of vacuous and senseless "intelligent" operations like AI. But you won't find that explored in the film.

It's a parade of evil people, stupid people, and immensely cynical, mentally lazy people. If you want to drastically reduce your faith in humanity -- from the public, to the experts, to the filmmakers -- this one is for you. If you value intelligence, you probably know where to go back and find it when you've closed the lid on your laptop.

A take on the horrific yet beautiful AI

[rohan_samal · 10/10 · 7 April 2018]

AI is here and its the future. The movie details the current situation of AI and the rapid pace of AI development. It is truly scary to consider the fact that Super Intelligence is probably just 5-10 years away

Populist fearmongering and not much else

[ersbel · 8 April 2018]

It was devil's work to put fire on water and have steam ships. Yet most people were wise enough to enjoy the speed and the regular schedule over the concerns of the ones getting rich on fear.

In other time, other part of the world and people were destroying the machines because somehow people will suffer less from cold if there is less clothing.

More recently because Westerners are way too fat to reach their expectations of immortality, the rest of the World should go hungry.

Finally, this is about the sins of AI. Sad, disgusting, uninspired. If only the arguments were a little original. Muslims are said to have about the same proprieties. Before that were the Jews. Or maybe the Roma.

A must watch for everybody on this planet!

[bhagwantgunaleb · 10/10 · 6 April 2018]

It lays out an excellently crafted concerned case for artificial intelligence and its impact, we all need to be aware of the scenarios coming towards us, so that we may act upon them and head towards the right direction, otherwise the storm will be heading us!

First important action point should be to secure our resources, and we are not doing that currently, wake up people, look around you, how are we organizing ourselves?!

Great Movie

[webcodershub · 10/10 · 20 September 2018]

Must watch this movie, watched this type of movie in years.

I am genuinely scared after seeing this

[debabrata4747 · 10/10 · 1 September 2018]

I work in the software industry and I know how these things work and I keep track of the advances AI is making in the real world. And after seeing this I am nearly convinced that we are collectively heading for a radical change in our way of living, it might be positive or negative, It will be extremes, either the world will be made a utopia or we, humans will be extinct. The biggest problem with AI these days is that there is no regulations, people can use it and program it to do whatever, the AI doesn't understand morals, or value of human life, it will take split second decisions. Its all numbers for it. The factor we are racing towards AI is in its base wrong. its either for greed (corporations) or weapons (military), the end result of either of them will not be very good for us humans. We are not taking this seriously enough, maybe it will take an incident involving an AI to wake us up. I pray that incident will not involve the whole human race. AI is inevitable, all we can do now is sit and watch the end.

Looks at the pros/cons of tomorrow

[jeffreitinger · 9/10 · 29 June 2020]

A look into the future costs and benefits that current technological advancements may present. Though I will say there is a few authors/writers that seemed to be "fear-mongering" by exaggerating things; there is also a great deal of brilliant tech minds speaking straightforward.

is this art?

[muellschoene · 2/10 · 8 April 2018]

It's comes across like a series of animated memes. Distracting moving images without informational content are interrupting a senseless string of short aphorisms spoken by various actors of the industry. The required and expected attention span of the target audience is about 10 seconds. That's when the beat changes. bam bambam bam bam bambam.

I don't get the idea behind the piece. It's not at all informational - so it can't claim the label 'documentary'.

Is it trying to be a video opera in seventeen thousands acts?

Instead of enlightening the viewer it's aiming to create emotions. As such it might claim the label "piece of art".

But as long as the director sells it as a documentary it gets 2 stars out of 10 from me. 2 instead of 1. Because apparently, he put in some effort to collect what you might call "interviews". It's a real shame that someone with that kind of access to the industry players doesn't create a more intelligent film with his material.

Required viewing.

[travis-988-242257 · 10/10 · 11 January 2019]

This should be require viewing by anyone who plans on being around beyond a few more years. It is a very honest yet disquieting perspective on where computers and AI are headed. The fact that it is at this point mostly unregulated is what will make or break us. As of now we have to rely in smart people to do the right thing. Excellent input from Jonathan Nolan, Elon Musk and many others. One comment that stuck with me was the speaker stating he didn't believe that even Google knew what Google was becoming.

A load of bull faeces

[arriva · 1/10 · 8 April 2018]

This is *not* a *documentary* about AI - it's a feature film about AI which mostly consists of falsehoods about the current state of AI and, based on these falsehoods, it paints the picture of future which is nothing but someone's crazy fantasy.

We are no close to general AI than we were 60 years ago. If you want yet another reason not to sleep well at night - go watch this steaming pile of bull faeces which speculates about something no one has ever seen and most experts AI don't see happening in the next 50-400 years (or maybe never).

It's worth noting that this film was sponsored by Elon Musk - a famous entrepreneur but who has zero relationship to artificial intelligence, neurology and brain research.

If you want unbiased opinions from experts in the field, go watch:

2018 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: Artificial Intelligence Superintelligence: Science or Fiction? Elon Musk & Other Great Minds

Luddite nonsense!

[admhr-04373 · 1/10 · 4 May 2018]

Luddite nonsense from the people who brought you 'witch burning', 'you will fall off the edge of the earth' and dragons.

fear mongering

[dbuzermanis · 4/10 · 19 December 2020]

Some glimpses into the amazing applications of AI, then the rest filled with AI skeptics instilling fear. frustrating, disappointing.