For my AI film review, I rewatched a classic series The Matrix specifically focusing on the second film The Matrix Reloaded which after rewatching is now personally my favorite in the trilogy.
In this movie, we focus a lot more on worldbuilding the universe around our protagonist Neo, and his companions on the Nebuchadnezzar as they fight against the matrix. The looming threat is a horde of Sentinels trying to destroy Zion, their sanctuary from the machines.
As we move through the movie we meet a host of programs all with different plans they must carry out. Whether or not these are just actions coded into them or what they want to do because they can is just mindboggling. The Oracle and The Frenchman are two programs that made me raise this question a lot. They both carry out plans that go against what we would assume was their original code though how much free will can they really have? Or is this mirage of free will just another part of their code that follows the main plan?
The main antagonist is Agent Smith a program in the matrix that has just gone rogue after being defeated by Neo. Through pure will, he somehow managed to refuse being deleted and has complete free will to do whatever a program would want to do which is what? World domination apparently. He becomes a sort of parasite to the code around him, taking over people and other programs to carry out his evil plans. Later in the movie he inhabits a guy named Bane and manages to enter the real world through him. My reaction to this is that if even a fraction of the AI capabilities is possible in our world then we’re all screwed. All this has taught me is to never trust plugging my mind into some software because Agent Smith might make me try to make humans go extinct.
