AI researcher Sasha Luccioni gives a surprisingly high accuracy score for the science inWestworld. Inspired by the 1973Yul Brynner-led movieof the same name, HBO’sWestworldexplored a world where humans were able to interact with humanoid robots known as hosts in a Western-themed park. However, everything changes when the hosts become self-aware, rebel, and eventually reach the outside world.
Despite being amasterpiece for sci-fi fans, and providing a clear setup for a final season, HBO canceled the series after season 4. The story was left unfinished as Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) prepared for a"final game"that would have brought the show full-circle.
In anInsidervideo, Luccioni breaks down a season 1 scene where the host Maeve Millay (Thandiwe Newton) sees artificial intelligence knowing what she is going to say before she speaks. Luccioni explains that AI can improvise in areas it has been trained in, but there are limitations to its improvisational abilities. Check out her comments below:
AI can definitely improvise in the sense that it’s no longer hardcoded like the dialogue tree that Maeve had. So it can improvise in the realm of what it was trained on. You can train an AI model on customer service logs, and you have people losing their credit cards and asking where the nearest ATM is. It will do fairly well even if you use words that weren’t exactly the same ones it was trained on. But if you start asking it “what is the meaning of life,” they will answer things that make no sense. Essentially, that’s when you know that your system is malfunctioning.
Luccioni also analyzes a season 3 scene where Dolores and Caleb Nichols (Aaron Paul) use an AI drone. While there is some accuracy in the depiction of the drone, she also notes several glaring issues, and is more impressed by the first scene. Read her additional comments below:
The chance that AI drones will mess up are definitely too high for them to be used in warfare. If I was in charge, we wouldn’t be using AI drones because I’ve seen the way that AI technologies fail spectacularly. And also, for me, using AI to actually make the decision of who to kill is completely unacceptable from a moral and ethical perspective.
Probably what the drone is doing is some form of facial recognition, which drones are able to do. I don’t know how people didn’t notice it, because it was obviously flying around. I feel like an AI sniper could do a good job from far away, but in real time, right? Like detecting a target and shooting the target, but doing that kind of reconnaissance with a drone and then following it up with a sniper, that’s not very realistic. It’s really hard for AI to predict the future in a meaningful way. So, for example, once you have that drone that mapped out where people were, say that they’re moving around in that space. So, for me, the implausibility of how would the bullet or missile go from where the drone saw the person to be five minutes ago to where the person is if they moved? There’s some piece of the puzzle that’s missing for me for those two steps. First, the reconnaissance and then the shooting to take place.
The first part is very plausible in terms of technology. The dialogue trees are definitely a thing and were definitely used, but the second part of the drone-controlled bullets for me is just out of this realm, out of our galaxy, honestly. On average,it would be a six [out of 10].
What This Means For Westworld
Westworldreceived significant praise for its riveting performances, shocking plot twists, high production value, and thought-provoking themes. Luccioni’s analysis proves that the show also deserves recognition for its use of real-life science when it comes to the portrayal of AI.
There is realism in the use of AI during the Maeve scene and with how the dialogue tree is able to predict her words before she speaks them. Since the AI has been programmed to perform this function for all the hosts, it is able to be predictive, and modern AI doesn’t even need to be hardcoded as this dialogue tree is.
As for the AI drone, other than the facial recognition, there is not as much realism to its use in the show, and the ethical dilemma of using AI drones is another matter entirely. This goes more into the territory of fiction than it does with actual science.
Our Take On Sasha Luccioni’s Comments
Considering thatWestworldseason 1 came out in 2016, the show’s depiction of AI was ahead of its time, and its ethical questions about AI were poised to become even more relevant than many anticipated. With season 1 releasing in 2016 and season 3 in 2020, it is fascinating that the 2016 scene is more scientifically accurate.
Revisiting scenes like these makes it all the more frustrating thatWestworldended with season 4. Along with providing a satisfying conclusion to the story, season 5 could have provided the most accurate and timely portrayal of AI yet.
