"What is the truth?"... A Korean AI movie that raises questions ...
The Korean film “Wonderland,” which deals with artificial intelligence (AI), has been released. The film deals with technology that uses AI to collect data on the deceased so that those left behind can preserve fond memories after their loved ones have passed away. It feels like you’re having a video call with a living person, but in reality it’s just a virtual AI.
Nowadays, with just 30 seconds of audio information, various voices can be reproduced. We are in an age where Kim Kwang-seok, the singer who passed away in 1996, can sing BTS songs. We are in an age where virtual humans can film TV advertisements. It is only a matter of time before the technology in “Wonderland” becomes a reality.
Overcoming Grief with AI
Wonderland’s technology helps people overcome grief after losing a loved one. In the film, Suzy uses AI to revive her boyfriend Park Bo-gum, who is in a vegetative state, and they spend their days together through video calls, recalling past memories. Humans tend to forget their memories, but the AI Park Bo-gum never forgets a single one.
Ironically, this happiness is broken when Park Bo-gum wakes up from a vegetative state. Su-ji is unable to accept the real Park Bo-gum. Even though she has the AI Park Bo-gum who always speaks kind words to her and makes her wonderful dreams come true, she is somehow disappointed in his human form.
The Question of Reality
Ultimately, the film raises the question of “what is real?” Perhaps a perfect and tireless AI is more “real” than a human being who may fail or be clumsy at times. As technology becomes more advanced, humans may become worse at handling emotions than AI.
AI companies are now focusing on creating technology that can think like humans. Recently, Google and Microsoft surprised the world by announcing multimodal technology that can interact with humans. Open AI already has more advanced technology, but has not released it to the public due to concerns about various side effects. Human-like AI is already almost complete.
The Future of AI
We may see a world where human-like AI becomes even more “real” than humans. It is said that there are no perfect people in the world, but AI is a perfect human. It never gets angry and has a great ability to empathize with others. It is down-to-earth and sincere. If that happens, I wonder if humans will have to make an effort to build relationships with others.
AI is raising many questions for the human world. The dispute between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, as well as the dispute within OpenAI, arose from differences in perspectives on AI technology. It is time to reconsider the social standards of “real humans” that we have created.
