Article from Shots.net on ‘Meme, Myself and AI’

Private Island’s dazzling cabarAI

by Carol Cooper

The mixed-media production studio releases the third in its trilogy of shorts about artificial intelligence and it’s a visually stunning rollercoaster ride exploring humanity’s next evolutionary stage – our relationship with/dominance over/submission to the bots.

Written and directed by Private Island director and co-founder Chris Boyle, Meme, Myself and I is based around the thought-provoking conceit of various bots contemplating their mortality and raging against death by deletion.

The witty, philosophical script is matched with outstanding imagery combining live-action footage alongside synthetic visuals, synthetic audio and traditional VFX.

Opening with a nostalgic whizz through the development of computing, it moves onto the revolutionary evolution of machine learning. The bots muse upon what it is to be human – “you made us in your reflection” – and the futile uses we have put this god-like tool to, the generation of wealth, porn and a gazillion anthropormorphic dancing paper clips. “Your culture is a meme, cos your reality is meaningless!”

Among a plethora of such profound quotes is the heartfelt plea from an an AI-generated dancing hot dog meme defending its innocence, “I’m not an existential threat to humanity!”

No indeed, the film points out, we are hurtling towards being the architects of our own descent into nothingness. Deep, very deep.

Look out for an upcoming craft feature on the creation of film – which was, most definitely, made by humans.

Full article here: https://www.shots.net/news/view/private-islands-dazzling-cabarai