An artificial intelligence researcher analyzes HBO’sWestworldfor accurate AI depictions. The four-season series, based on Michael Crichton’s movie of the same name, began exploring a futuristic amusement park for rich patrons to live out their deepest good vs. evil fantasies through artificial consciousness. Starring Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris, and James Marsden, the show garnered rave reviews in its first two seasons for its sci-fi themes and performances, though seasons 3 and 4 saw only generally positive reviews, being part of the reason forWestworldseason 5’s cancellation.
In a recent video forInsider, Sasha Luccioni ratedWestworldfor its AI accuracy. The first clip Luccioni examines comes from season 1, episode 16 scene where Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) holds the tablet that controls her for the first time and sees that it is predicting her speech. The tablet shows the use of a dialogue tree, which isn’t used frequently anymore because they’re “really brittle,” according to the researcher.
Nowadays, with the modern day chatbots that are based on large language models, they don’t use this kind of schematic deterministic way of planning dialogue at all. They’re actually based on probabilities and predicting next words. Chat and other dialogue systems sound or look so realistic because they’re trained on essentially billions and billions of words. So [this scene is] kind of cute because it’s taking an OG AI technique and using it in a very forward-thinking, very futuristic context.
Next, Luccioni looks at a clip from season 3, episode 7, in which AI drones focus in on a target to eliminate. The researcher calls the scene unrealistic because AI drones are too inaccurate to be used in warfare. Additionally, Luccioni notes that, in her opinion, having AI drones make the call on who to kill is “completely unacceptable from a moral and ethical perspective.”
Later in the scene, the drones do some form of facial recognition, which is a realistic practice today’s drones are capable of doing. Though she’s not sure a drone would be able to detect a target, shoot the target, and follow up with a sniper in real-time, as it’s extremely difficult for AI to predict the future in a meaningful way:
For me, the implausibility is: how would the bullet or the 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. But the first part is very plausible in terms of technology.
With the accuracy of the dialogue trays and the inaccuracy of the drones,Luccioni scoredWestworld6/10.
What Luccioni’s Westworld Analysis Means
HBO’sWestworldis all about artificial intelligence, as the main characters in the show aren’t human, but instead AI beings. As such,one would expect the writers of the show to do some AI research, and it seems season 1 has a good understanding of AI capabilities and best practices. Luccioni has her qualms with AI usage in season 3, but she is ranking the AI in the show compared to today’s AI technology.Westworldtakes place in the future, around the year 2053, which could leave enough room for the technology to grow to the show’s capabilities.
Our Take On Luccioni’s AI Analysis Of Westworld
While it is interesting to compare the AI technology presented inWestworldto the AI capabilities of 2024, it’s not entirely relevant since the show takes place in the future. At its heart, the HBO show is a dystopian science fiction series thatexplores the moral questions concerning how AI beings should be treated were they to become sentient.The technology used inWestworldperfectly matching up with the AI technology of 2024 isn’t what makes it a good or interesting show.
Westworld
Cast
Westworld is a television series set in a futuristic Wild West-themed amusement park where advanced android hosts cater to human guests' desires. The series explores the themes of artificial consciousness and human morality as the lines between reality and artificiality begin to blur.
