Do You Trust This Computer? is a wake-up call to humankind about the existential dilemmas posed by the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI).

Through expert interviews and historical analysis, the director, Chris Paine, offers the viewer an easy-to-digest summary of what could come for humankind. Paine does a great job at pacing the documentary, introducing fields that AI is transforming while also explaining how AI learns and its true potential.

The title, Do You Trust This Computer?, is similar to the pop-up message “Trust this computer?,” which many of us have experienced while charging our phones with our laptops or transferring data between devices. Paine’s film recontextualizes this somewhat annoying notification to provoke existential questions in the viewer.

Paine provides examples of fields in which AI is already having a huge effect, such as the medical field. Radiologists who work on analyzing X-rays and other scans for abnormalities might spend minutes doing so; however, AI only takes seconds. In addition, AI does not need to take a coffee break, vacation, sleep, or do anything else. It functions 24/7, making it a no-brainer for many companies, including the one I have been working for during the summers. I was responsible for data entry, which involves moving data from one software to another. Each file takes approximately 30 minutes to process and then another 10 minutes to review to ensure there are no errors. However, I recently received an email regarding an AI project involving the data entry I have been working on. The company has adopted new technology, and I will no longer be needed for that job.

Thankfully, there is other work for me to do. However, millions of Americans continue to become unemployed because of AI. Dr. Enrique Jacome, an OB-GYN practicing at Eisenhower Medical Center, stated in the film that he would conduct surgery on approximately 150 cases a year before AI. However, he now performs only about one surgery yearly, making him feel “very uncomfortable” regarding his job security.

The film details Tay AI, which was a project conducted by Microsoft to better understand the moral and ethical nature of AI. In 2016 a chatbox was released on Twitter and left to make decisions and to post whatever it wanted. Within 16 hours, the bot began posting racist and sexist tweets, causing Microsoft to quickly take the bot down. The team blamed internet “trolls” for targeting these corrupt messages to the bot. However, it seems to be more of an issue that AI has no conscience or ethics, and thus it will repeat what it learns from its environment.

This documentary presented a revealing interview of Elon Musk, co-founder of Neuralink, Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company. Musk is very concerned about the nature of AI. Artificial intelligence works toward accomplishing a goal and then figures out how to accomplish this goal. Musk states that AI does not necessarily need to be evil to cause harm. If AI completes a goal and humanity is in its way, AI could very well eliminate humans from the planet “without thinking about it. No hard feelings.” Therefore, when coding AI, precautions need to be taken to avoid catastrophe.

Artificial intelligence is initially slow at wrapping its fingers around a new concept or discipline. However, as soon as it does, it is very quick to surpass human capabilities. Google's AI project Deepmind tested the limits of AI by letting it analyze the board game Go. Generally people believed AI could not compete with world champions, with the New York Times claiming it would take 100 years to solve the game. Once Deepmind challenged the Go world champions at the time and won within a week, it became apparent that AI had incredible potential that superseded our previous understanding. After this feat, the consensus was that poker could never be conquered by AI because of the human aspect of tricking and reading expressions. Within a week, Deepmind defeated the world champions in poker.

This documentary was highly informative about what the future may look like with the development of AI. At the same time, there was no information offered about what can be done to prevent AI from creating machines or weapons that could run amok and cause incredible destruction in the world. I would rate this documentary four out of five stars. The film can help spread awareness about the dangers of AI, however it can also leave one feeling relatively small and hopeless for the future of humanity. Having no clear suggestions or potential solutions for the risks of AI is a missed opportunity to put viewers on a more positive path. All in all, I would recommend that anyone view Do You Trust This Computer? In a few years, our lives will be changed by AI, and having some insight into the future can help us prepare for what may come to pass.