Melissa McCarthy and Bobby Cannavale star in “Superintelligence,” an artificial intelligence romantic comedy set in Seattle. Late night TV host James Corden provides the voice of the AI. (Photo by New Line Cinema / HBO Max / WarnerMedia)
Seattle, Microsoft and the field of artificial intelligence are stars of “Superintelligence,” an HBO Max film starring Melissa McCarthy as the heroine of the romantic comedy and comedian James Corden as the new overlord of the disembodied artificial intelligence of the world. .
But how much substance is behind the reflector? Although the action takes place in Seattle, much of the main filming was done in Georgia. And the scientific basis for the plot, which involves an AI trying to decide whether or not to destroy the planet, is, shall we say, debatable.
Fortunately, we have the perfect equipment to put “Super Intelligence” to the test, like a movie set in Seattle, as well as a guide to the capabilities of artificial intelligence.
The Seattle area is one of the most popular AI hotspots in the world, thanks to Microsoft, Amazon, the University of Washington, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and dozens of AI startups.
We enlisted Oren Etzioni, the executive director of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, also known as AI2, and Carissa Schoenick, AI2’s senior program manager and communications director, to do a reality check on the description of artificial intelligence in the movie. Kurt Schlosser, who covers the Geek Life beat in., Weighed in on the description of Seattle’s tech culture in the film.
Pros and cons of AI
Right off the bat, Etzioni said that Melissa McCarthy fans are likely to like “super intelligence,” regardless of any AI missteps.
“It’s always good to see you,” he said. “In fact, it’s fun for the whole family. My 10-year-old son and my wife joined me, and that clearly says something as a movie, although it’s not a classic masterpiece or as funny as when I played a James Bond character in ‘Spy.’
“Superintelligence” is built on stereotypes, including the classic story of rekindling a romance with an old boyfriend, the high-tech situation room filled with world leaders, and the hilarity of a hapless pair of FBI agents (one of whom is played by Ben Falcone, the film’s director and McCarthy’s husband).
Corden’s disembodied AI also follows a stereotype, Etzioni said.
“AI is omniscient and basically omnipotent, as long as it has the Internet, right?” he said. “There is no real separation from the notion of being highly intelligent and knowing every little fact about yourself, whereas at AI2 we consider it very different things.”
In a way, the stereotype of AI as described in “Superintelligence” is “almost more pernicious than Terminator,” Etzioni said: “Terminator … you know it’s a monster, right? But here is a comedy. It’s this guy’s voice and of course the AI knows everything. But that’s a stereotype.
Previously in the cinema: ‘Terminator’ is back, and artificial intelligence experts do a reality check
While lighthearted, “superintelligence” comes with a terrifying premise, Schoenick said.
“The movie presents this artificial intelligence as something that came out of the blue, and it comes with a built-in agenda of evaluating humanity for potential destruction,” he said. “It’s a pretty impossible and terrifying way to portray AI technology, although it’s not uncommon in Hollywood.”
Schoenick pointed out that the AI could find its way to any device, from a Tesla to a toaster, but it couldn’t get into the movie’s characters as they worked on secret plans to thwart their scheme. “It’s exactly as powerful or not as it should be at one point in the movie,” he said.
In one of Schoenick’s favorite hype tech scenes, a Microsoft researcher points out the ups and downs of a global neural network on a giant screen. “I don’t think the audience would think of it as something that we could just bookmark and say, ‘Oh, let me check out neural network activity around the world today. It’s really high, I wonder what that means, ‘”he said. “Also, why would Microsoft be the one to coordinate the global response to rogue AI?”
Etzioni said the movie does at least one thing about AI well. “The emotions, the interactions, the little contradictions that make us decide who to love and who not to love are very difficult for people to understand and completely unfathomable for machines,” he said.
Etzioni noted that Yejin Choi, a researcher at UW and AI2, is working on a project that aims to give artificial intelligence programs more common sense.
“In fact, we have benchmarks and metrics around social common sense, and it is extremely opaque for a machine,” he said. “That’s the only part that the movie really got right: the machines don’t ‘get’ it in that emotional sense.”
Seattle clips and slips
Like most movies apparently set in Seattle (like “Love, Guaranteed,” recently released by Netflix), parts of “Superintelligence” were filmed elsewhere. Most of the Microsoft scenes were shot at Georgia Tech, for example. In one such scene, a futuristic sculpture in Georgia Tech’s Clough Building takes center stage.
Sure, there are the standard establishment shots of the Space Needle, Monorail, and other Seattle landmarks. “The first aerial zoom into an Elliott Bay ‘office of technology’ is actually the Zillow headquarters or the Russell Investments Center building,” Schlosser said.
There’s also the mandatory fish toss at Pike Place Market, though the filmmakers make what Schlosser calls “the most egregious non-Seattle mistake” by labeling it Pike’s Place Market on a satellite chart. (We should keep in mind that we were looking at a pre-release version of the movie and there is a chance that the graphic was corrected for the final release.)
A graph that appears in “Superintelligence” mislabels Pike Place Market, but hits the mark precisely on latitude and longitude. (New Line Cinema / HBO Max / WarnerMedia)
Sharp-eyed Seattleites may notice a couple of inconsistencies that outsiders wouldn’t see. For example, McCarthy moves into a Pioneer Square penthouse that appears to have a view of the Great Wheel and the Seattle waterfront, but that is a perspective that can only be seen in reality from Pike Place Market, further north.
Schlosser said that “Superintelligence” capitalized on the spirit of the Seattle startup scene when McCarthy’s character, named Carol Peters, looks for work at a dirty and dirty site called BaDunkaDunk.com (sorry, geeks, that domain name was taken three years ago.)
“BaDunkaDunk goes to great lengths for the normal starter cliches, including the absurd bean bag furniture and the use of ‘we need a rock star’ when interviewing Carol,” he said.
Another Seattle twist has Carol and her old love, played by Bobby Cannavale, meeting Ken Griffey Jr. at a Mariners game. The Mariners get almost as much attention as Microsoft. “At one point, Carol’s boyfriend offers a toast to ‘another Mariners win,’ which we all know doesn’t happen very often,” Schlosser joked.
However, at least one Seattle icon is missing. “Why is Microsoft still the go-to technology representative for the Seattle area, at a time when Amazon has risen to such prominence?” Schlosser asked. “I don’t think I saw any Amazon tracks in the movie.”
Final notes
We asked each of our reviewers to rate “Superintelligence” on an academic scale from A to F, for sheer entertainment and science.
Etzioni: Representations of Hollywood AI, ranging from “Terminator” and “Westworld” to “Ella” and “Ex Machina” generally don’t come close to the mark, in Etzioni’s opinion. And “Superintelligence” is a typical AI movie. “It made me laugh, and I love Melissa McCarthy through it all. As a movie, I would give it a B. As a representation of the AI, I would give it a C minus. The only reason I’m giving it a C-minus is because I’m grading on the curve and the other students didn’t do very well.
Schoenick: C-minus for entertainment, F for science. “Stop all your disbelief at this, because almost nothing AI does makes sense, and the use of the buzzword is sloppy too. They even misused the term ‘Turing Test’, which is quite inexcusable in a movie starring an AI. ‘ His recommendation for a much more realistic (though much less fun) AI movie: “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix.
Schlosser: “I’ve laughed a lot at Melissa McCarthy in other roles, including ‘Bridesmaids’ and on SNL, but I didn’t like this movie. I thought it was full of cliches, weird references, and out of touch stuff. So I give it a low C or a D. I’m glad I got to see it for free while I was working.
Boyle: C for entertainment, with the “C” for a regular cable movie. D for science, with the “D” for “Don’t you dare take it seriously.” YB for serving as a parlor game to identify Seattle ties, with the “B” for BaDunkaDunk.
HBO Max has launched a “20 Days for Kindness” campaign on behalf of “Superintelligence,” with HBO Max donating $ 20,000 to a different good cause daily for 20 days. AT&T helped start with a $ 1 million contribution to Girls Who Code, and there is also a Prizeo charity giveaway. For more information on the campaign, visit 20daysofkindness.com or search for the hashtag # 20DaysofKindness on social media.
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