Ex Machina Revisited: A Decade Later – How Well Does the AI Thriller Hold Up?

I really liked the movie. One thing that bothered me, though, is that Nathan didn't have any kind of fail-safe to instantly shut down an AI's machinery with a simple voice command. He seems like a smart enough guy to plan for that.

Very well spoken and a fantastic analysis of the film and I totally agree with your takes. <3

I really enjoy this movie. I have the 4k in my collection.

What a great ride into technology. Well written film.

Two things that I get from this film that you don't touch on: (1) Caleb is not a good guy. He "cares" about freeing Ava but not one jot about Kyoko who also asks him for help as best she is able without a voice, and (2) the person being tested (though not necessarily the Turing Test) is the person watching the film. With whom do you empathise? Do you think that Ava is sentient? Do you think she is evil? Do you think "human" should be the standard against which we are testing whether something should have "human" rights?

And, in the spirit of healthy debate, a couple of nit-picks with your nit-picks: Nathan is shown to be very arrogant and hubristic. See how he twists Caleb's line about becoming God. Ava probably doesn't have a kill switch because he doesn't think she or Caleb can outsmart him. Also, it seems to me that Ava is charged inductively from the floor as well as the walls. There's no reason that the high voltage part of an inductive power charging system should have any data connection to the house network. While Ava can send power spikes backwards to trip the failsafes, there's no reason she should be able to hack into the data network. For me, the bigger question is how does she keep herself charged once she is out in the world. How long does she have to MacGuyver a means of powering herself before she runs out of juice?

But then, this film is more about the ethical questions and not the tech itself. So we happily suspend disbelief.

Eva does mentions that she recharges herself with induction plates. In electronics, induction can apply electricity thru a magnetic field.

Alex Garland did revisit the subject somewhat in the streaming show DEVS. The AI in Devs was contained within a large dedicated server building with limited access to only high level employees.

I feel Sonoya Mizuno deserves a shout-out for her excellent role as Kyoko. Not easy to create such a compelling character that doesn't even speak.

This movie was really good. One of the best A.I movies.

Kyoko was not a dumbed-down version of Eva. Eva was the evolutionary leap forward from Kyoko and many other AI bots.
The film is excellent, and the plot holds up well.

Rewatched Ex Machina on a flight recently. I came to the realization that the power shift didnt come at the point of physical rebellion. Ava had control long before. Nathan was given the illusion of control. Nathan was like a fish on a hook, caught but still swimming. Caleb was weaker and was putty in Ava’s hands immediately. Ava turned them into metaphorical pretzals and orchestrated the whole thing. Wonder if there any parallels to whats going on today?

ive seen this movie a hundred times and never thought about the wifi. i have often thought what might she say to the helicopter pilot, like does he not care that he should be getting caleb? but its kind of small detail that does not take from the brilliant allegory that references such classic and ancient stories. like adam and eve and Frankenstein.